Finding her rhythm

Her children were still asleep in their beds when, under a monochrome sky, Louisa waded into the gasp-inducing bay.

Adjusting her orange swimming cap, she began stroking methodically into the deep water and, for the first time, out past the buoys.

Once safe in her rhythm, she allowed herself a moment.

Until recently she’d never been much of a swimmer — let alone the open-water kind – yet here she was, defying the elements, the impenetrable depths, her myriad fears.

Here she was, unfathomably, leaving the shore further behind but with the confidence to know she’d be strong enough to return.

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