My son mysteriously vanished 12 years ago – I thought he was dead til he called… I can’t imagine what he’s been through
A MUM who spoke to her son for the first time in more than a decade has revealed their extraordinary first conversation.
Joyce Curtis believed Nicholas was dead having not seen or heard a peep from him since 2010.
But on December 19 she received a phone call informing her he was alive and in a hospital in the South of France.
Detailing their first conversation in 12-years, Joyce said: “I spoke to him on the phone. He looks healthy.
“I asked him, ‘Are you coming home Nikky?’ And he said, ‘Aye’.
“I can’t imagine what he’s been through. I just need to get him home.”
Nicholas left his home town of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, in the mid-2000s to travel Europe after losing his job as a joiner.
He told his mum he had been hitchhiking but Joyce believes he spent some time living rough on the streets of Paris.
The mum reported her son missing in 2009 having heard nothing from Nicholas “for ages”.
A year later, Joyce was told by the British Consulate in Paris that Nicholas had been admitted to hospital in France.
The mum and her late husband, who sadly died in June, flew out to see their son and were told he would finally fly home to Scotland.
But he never got on the 2010 flight – and he went silent for 12-years.
The couple were kept in the dark and over the pandemic, believed Nicholas may have died of Covid.
Poor Joyce even “grieved for him” – but then a glimmer of hope came when they finally spoke on Monday December 19 following a second stint in hospital.
Nicholas is now planning to return home, but Joyce is keen to travel over to France to see him.
She said: “I’m not building my hopes up until I get him home.
“Hopefully though I might even get over to France with my daughter before then so I can see him.”