'Brother. do. you. love. me.' The SMS that changed our lives

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brothers Manni and Reuben Coe, and the text that prompted a lockdown rescue mission.

Manni was living in Spain when he received this troubling text from his younger brother Reuben. Reuben has Down's syndrome, and had become isolated and non-verbal while living in a care home in the UK during the Covid pandemic. Manni decided to stage a rescue — a 'bro-nap' — and together they embarked on a loving journey of brotherhood and recovery. Manni and Reuben have written a book called Brother. Do. You. Love. Me.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: May Cameron

Transcript

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0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:06.9	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.1	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:13.7	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history.
0:20.7	We're still looking for Lucan. It's honestly one of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for
0:21.6	Leukin. It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime. I'm Alex von
0:26.6	Tundselman. This is The Lucan Obsession. Listen on BBC Sounds. Now listen very carefully.
0:34.5	Ruben Coe doesn't like to shout, but he has something very important to say.
0:42.0	Baham, do you love me?
0:50.9	So that was the text message that Reuben said to me
0:54.3	in between the lockdown, in between the first lockdown and the second lockdown.
0:58.2	Brother dot do, dot you, dot, love, dot me, dot.
1:03.1	Dot, not question mark at the end.
1:05.1	It wasn't a question.
1:06.1	It wasn't a question there.
1:07.4	He wasn't asking me if I love him.
1:09.1	He was basically, I think, writing big
1:12.5	SOS in the sand.
1:18.9	In November 2020, when the coronavirus was wreaking havoc all over the world, Manny was living
1:26.3	abroad in Spain. Ruben, who's in its 30s, was living in a care
1:30.4	home in England, cut off from friends and family and struggling badly with the isolation.
	...

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