A son's love never dies..

Byline: Coleen Nolan

Teetering on stage at Blackpool Opera House on Tuesday night for our homecoming gig was the scariest moment of the Nolans tour so far.

The thought there were people out there in the audience who'd known us since we were kids was terrifying.

But for me it was the high point of the tour too - because as I looked across the side of the stage I saw my two boys Shane Jnr and Jake looking so proud of their old mum strutting her stuff that it made all the fear worthwhile.

Nothing drives you totally up the wall like your own sons. They seem to know the buttons to press to drive a mother totally potty.

It's the knee-high piles of dirty clothes and stinking trainers, the humungous amount of food they wolf down without pausing for breath, abandoned tubes of hair gel, mountains of wet towels, pumping music pounding from behind their bedroom door and the nights they roll in just as you're coming downstairs in your pyjamas.

But at the same time there is nothing like a son's hug for his mum that can melt your heart - and that's why, let's face it, we let our boys get away with blue murder.

That's why my heart broke this week for Margaret Gately, mum of Boyzone star Stephen, after her son's funeral.

The thought that she'll never see him bound through the door, with a hug and a kiss and a bag of dirty washing must be too much to bear.

Reading that Stephen and Margaret had only just made up a 10-year rift must make the situation even more agonising for Margaret.

In a magazine interview given a fortnight before his death Stephen told how he'd only recently flown to Dublin to make peace with his mum.

Stephen told the interviewer: "There were tears and I told her I loved her very much and I'd always be there for her."

Thank God that Stephen and Margaret were able to have that reunion. But how cruel they were to have such a tiny period of time before they were to be separated again - this time by death.

But I do honestly believe that Stephen will still always be there for his mum. Because however far our little boys might grow away from us in life they never, ever leave our hearts.

And while Margaret may no longer be able to feel Stephen's hugs or be driven mad by all those things that our sons do, I am totally sure he'll always be looking down on her and will be there for her always - just like he promised.

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BOND: Stephen and his mum Margaret