I went along to the hearing on Friday 13th in Taylor House on Rosebery Avenue where it was to be decided whether Marjorie Ojule's daughter Sweetny would be allowed to join her mother here in the UK from Uganda. Marjorie and Sweetny have been apart since Sweetny was 4 - which was seven years ago when Marjorie escaped from a "safe house" in Uganda. She had been detained in this "safe house" because she was, along with her husband, accused of being a rebel due to her involvement in opposition politics. In this "safe house" she was subjected to serious beatings. An escape was orchestrated in which she managed to flee by crawling through a hole dug under barbed wire. One other woman also managed to escape while 3 others died in their attempts. Marjorie boarded a flight to the UK two days later. Since being granted indefinite leave to remain in this country in January 2008 (5 years after arriving here), Marjorie has been striving to get back her daughter Sweetny whom she was forced to leave behind in a boarding school. With one application rejected on account of a lack of evidence that Marjorie and Sweetny were, in fact, related, it was the appeal hearing that I went to. Of course Marjorie and Sweetny are mother and daughter and so provided DNA evidence to prove it. The court was shown a video of Sweetny in her school in Uganda tearfully saying how much she missed her mother and how she wanted to be allowed a visa to come to the UK. This was extremely moving and there were many teary eyes in the court room - including the judge! The court was also shown a video of Marjorie's mother's funeral. Marjorie's mother was Sweetny's one remaining close relative and guardian in Uganda until she died. The Home Office had contended that the death certificate provided by Marjorie's Ugandan lawyers for her mother was fraudulent so the video was shown to prove that she is in fact dead and as a result, Sweetny has no guardian in Uganda except for her headmistress. Marjorie's reaction to the footage (which she had not seen before) was painful to see and she had to leave the room. The judge accepted that Marjorie's mother is, in fact, sadly dead. Having said at the outset of the hearing that her decision would not be communicated to Marjorie for 4 weeks, the judge ended the Friday afternoon hearing by revealing that she would allow the appeal and that Sweetny would, finally, be reunited with her mother. I feel privileged to have been party to the emotional, and most importantly joyful culmination of Marjorie's years of tireless effort to have her daughter returned to her. Congratulations to the brave Ojule family and may they have happier times ahead of them! Others fighting similar battles, take comfort and inspiration from this family's (eventually successful) ordeal! Friday 13th is not always unlucky! With love.