I've not seen anything written by Tuitsi for years.

My interpretation at the time, and based upon reading many of his posts and convo by p.m. - he was heartbroken that she was growing up. While he is her uncle, I believe that he was more of a father figure.

As a father myself, I get it.

I think, and would be interested to hear opinion on this - there's always a favourite phase of childhood. My ex-wife still talks about how, for example, my oldest daughter spent her first two years in my arms. She would be readied for bed and would fall asleep on me. I'd sit and watch TV for a while then carry her to bed. Great times.

Better was when she was a little older, my pals talk about how they loved coming to my house and watching the interaction. We all became expert on the latest Disney movie - The Little Mermaid songs are still sung at parties. They all knew that at some point through the course of the day a play fight would kick off, and they would love watching it. Just a Dad in deep love with his chocolate box baby daughter.

My son, fantastic boy - almost like a Disney character himself up until the age of twelve. High school has a cruel way of making kids grow up fast, and starting to reject their parents.

It must have been five years ago that Tutsi went back to work after illness. I remember him posting that he was finding it hard to leave his family, but even harder when his niece was devastated about him leaving. He started a thread in the other place asking for advice on how to handle the emotions he was facing.

Now, to be realistic - that was all based upon convos and posts of a few years ago. These days, my niece for example is a fine looking young woman but It would never occur to me to describe her physical attributes. I'd be more likely to do that Dad thing and say - "you ain't going out dressed like that!"

Then I'd remember that when I was her age, I liked girls going out dressed like that so I shut cos I don't want to land in Dante's special place in hell for the hypocrite.

IMO, which I'm prepared to be wrong - Tuitsi loves that girl, and like a lot of us, has a special place in his heart for the time when they were like two peas in a pod. I would be very disappointed if it were anything else.