We decided to take my Dad up on his offer to rent the house. It ended up being really short notice; I had just eight days to pack everything. In that time, Annie caught a virus that wiped her out for five of those days and involved two trips to see the doctor. She had a high temperature and was vomiting, so, as well as packing, I’ve also been up most nights with her. For the last two days, I’ve been ill with the same virus – packing consisted of me lying on the floor, chucking our stuff into boxes.

Tonight is our last night in our home; the home that gave us refuge after leaving Tom’s abuse. Tomorrow we move house and start another new chapter.

The older girls are away with their dad this week, and Annie went away with Tom today, so tonight I lay in bed listening to music and watching my photos in a slideshow. I realised that I will always remember this house as the house where love grew. It’s not that we didn’t have that love before, but we didn’t have it as we do now.

We take from this house twenty-seven months of laughter and silliness, friendships that have been made, a lot of love and tons of good memories.