I got into this journalism malarkey because I knew that every single day would be different.
Reporting the news is a rewarding career choice at times, but I also appreciate why members of the public might loathe a journalist – particularly when they have to chase down a story where there’s tragedy, feelings are running high, and where the media are seen as intruding on people’s grief or hardship.
It’s par for the course, and it goes without saying that not one person – that I know of anyway – in this line of work gets any sort of thrill from that side of the job.
We deal with sensitive stories as sensitively as we can, but sometimes having to report the news simply sucks.
Many people ‘on the receiving end’ feel opening up to the press is cathartic, and I get that. Some people slam the door in our faces, and I get that too. Others are polite and respectfully tell us where to go, and that’s absolutely fine. We’re doing our jobs at the end of the day, and I like to think we do it in a respectful way at all times.
You might wonder where I’m going with this, but basically I want to use this week’s column to pay tribute to one of the strongest women I’ve ever dealt with.
Rightly or wrongly, Nicola Urquhart has been in the public eye since her son Corrie McKeague disappeared following a night out in Bury St Edmunds.
Since September, Nicola and Corrie’s family have been at the forefront of a massive search operation which captured the attention of thousands on social media.
Hopes of finding Corrie alive have dwindled over those months, but this week’s news that Corrie’s body is more than likely to be in a landfill site after mistakes were made during the search is nothing short of devastating for all concerned.
However, it is perhaps a measure of the woman that Nicola once more braved the cameras, like she has done repeatedly to keep Corrie in the public eye, to apologise for any upset caused to the 120,000 or so Facebook users who have followed her story.
She suggested that she had perhaps upset other people when maybe it “didn’t have to happen”.
But I’m sure every right thinking member of society would agree when I say she has absolutely nothing to apologise for.
We have all been following the story, hoping and praying that somehow Corrie – a Fifer, one of us – would be found safe and well.
Now, as we wait and watch to see what happens next, I can only salute Nicola’s strength and resolve in the face of hugely trying circumstances.
Her day job as a family liaison officer with Police Scotland means, by its very definition, that she’s media savvy and knows how things work.
For me though, that’s completely irrelevant. I certainly could do what she’s done in recent months.
Whatever happens from here on in, I hope she knows that she’s done herself, her family and Corrie proud.