When Bryan knew that he would be spending the next year working away from home, he turned to the RAF Association’s Storybook Wings project to make weekday bedtimes easier for his son Bradan.
Bryan went on detachment to RAF Halton as part of the detached stress management and resilience training team. He spent 12 months delivering stress management briefings to all RAF promotion courses and Phase One recruits at Recruit Training Squadron and Initial Officer Training. In this period his family, including eight-year-old son Bradan, stayed in the family home. The separation was a struggle for Bryan, Bradan and his wife Trish. However, Trish knew of the Storybook Wings project where RAF parents can record a bedtime story for their child to listen to when the serving parent is away from home.
Bryan said of the experience: “It was surprisingly easy. I like to bring the stories to life for Bradan, and as much as I can bring different voices to the characters. So, I made sure I did that for the recording.”
Bradan and Bryan are fans of Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Rhymes’ and they are a firm bedtime favourite when Bryan is home. It made Bryan’s decision over what to record a lot easier. He chose Revolting Rhymes favourites ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’.
Working away from home for 12 months was incredibly difficult for the whole family, Bryan said: “I’ve had extended periods away in my previous role, but it’s actually harder for my family that I go away every week. Yes, I get to be home every weekend, but that’s also 52 goodbyes that we have to say through the year.” Spending time with the family at the weekend became precious to everyone, despite the heart wrenching goodbyes that Sundays brought. Bryan and Trish are comforted that Bradan has his Storybook Wings recordings to help during the weekdays.
When Bradan first heard the recording, he cried ‘happy tears’ and loved the personalised touches of the recording. As well as the Storybook Wings editor adding sound effects to the Revolting Rhymes, they also added sound effects to Bryan’s personalised message as an extra touch. This all meant so much to Bryan: “knowing Storybook Wings is there gives us, as parents, some comfort. Kids like to pretend they’re grown up, but Bradan is still a child.”
Bryan would recommend Storybook Wings to anyone, he explains:
“I didn’t realise it was there until it was pushed out to me, so I advocate it to anyone working away from home. It’s certainly made my time away a little easier. I think it’s brilliant and I can’t rate it highly enough”
The RAF Association couldn’t continue providing support to RAF families without your support.
If you would like to record your own Storybook Wings story contact [email protected] or get in touch with your station HIVE.
