How old where you when you realized that people die? And then how long did it take to sink in how permanent that change in status really is? Finally, how old were you when the penny dropped that if granny died, granpa died, your dog died and all those guppies died, then you also had an expiry date?

One of the problems with Type I is that it tends to affect kids before they’re old enough to have, in their own natural time, reached that stage of coming to grips with the concept of being mortal. This means when your child is diagnosed you have to speed the process by making it clear to them they either control their illness or they die. And exactly what that means.

Of course when they are still infants – and some are diagnosed at the tender age of 12 months and younger – you cannot make this clear to them. No, instead you must carry the fear for two. And then when they are old enough to start taking a little control over what they eat and maybe even do an injection or two themselves, then you have to, as gently as possible, as clearly as possible and as emphatically as possible impress upon them the nature of mortality to whatever limit their understanding is at the time.

For months after coming home, our daughter had trouble going to sleep. She kept asking me to lie down with her until she had dozed off. I knew the reason why but it still took time to get over the moment she told me she was afraid if she went to sleep, she wouldn’t wake up. Okay, I’ll never get over the moment: every morning when I go into to wake her, to tell it’s time to get ready for school, I hold my breath until I hear her sigh, rustle and make those sounds of waking complaint every teenager makes before putting feet to the floor.