Author: Oana

One step forward….1000 back

Published by

Grief is unpredictable, heavy and messy, the books say. To know all these facts is one thing. To live them, is another… I thought I was doing better. I thought we were maybe out of the darkest woods. But then, I got to the point where I couldn’t work outside our home. It’s okay, I said the myself, I can still do things from here. But I can’t. I have found everything such a struggle. I can manage a maximum of three days of work out of the five. I get so anxious about balancing work and caring for Emma and the house that juggling all the balls is a job in itself. I am back to waking up at night. And being so, so scared. Of the present. Of the future. Emma has kicked off again on Sunday. She told her daddy that her “mummy loves one child and it isn’t me!”, in floods or tears and rage. I went to see my GP yesterday. This time, this one was kind and understanding. She …

Children’s Grief Awareness Week UK

Published by

Last week I wrote a blog post about Emma’s struggles as a bereaved sister and Vicky, a bereaved mummy and friend, commented with information about Children’s Grief Awareness Week in the UK. Information about Children’s Grief Awareness Week can be found here, and I will let you skim it in peace, in your own time. All I will mention here is that it is organised by Grief Encounter in collaboration with the Childhood Bereavement Network and a wealth of information and resources are only a click away from the link I included above. What I feel I need to contribute to this initiative is a personal account of how difficult bereavement has been for us as a family and especially for Emma, as a sibling. I will also include what has worked for us, when it comes to grief support for Emma, and what other alternatives have been suggested to us by people who are either specialists, educators or have suffered the death of a sibling when they were young. Some of these suggestions  you …

#Glorious Adventures: Dreaming of Mumbai

Published by

If I could squeeze my human self into a bouncy molecule transcending time and space I would embark onto a trip to the ends of the earth. We dreamt so many times with Alex of travelling to India so Mumbai would be a good place to start. Mumbai is huge and its population vast, over 18 million souls, but I would fit perfectly in travelling as a speck of dust. I would not want to do sightseeing, in the touristy sense of the word, although I am sure the views would be spectacular… A speck of dust has other dreams… I would love, instead of hastily overloading my senses with almost palpable but somewhat artificial beauty, to just be… I would love to be the dirt that rests for a while on, old, well-travelled shoes. Listen to their stories;  bask in the richness of experience they carry of places visited… I would love to be the tear that stains imperceptibly the cheek of the old, sweet lady who guards the even older temple. The emotional …

On Death

Published by

Every so often, I imagine myself visiting with Georgie in heaven. It usually happens when I have my reflexology sessions as it is the only time I can relax deeply and give Georgie and our love a whole hour, uninterrupted. This week, I didn’t want to leave him in my imagination. I just wanted to stay there or somehow, drag him back into this world. I imagined myself sitting down with him, in a field of high-definition coloured flowers and under a magnificently wide-branched, silver tree and told him again and again how much  I missed him. And I told him that I do hope it will not be long before I get to go there too. These thoughts, before you reach for the phone and call me in panic, are not suicidal thoughts, my friend. For most people, Death is such a scary word and notion. I get it too well, I used to be the same before Georgie died. But now, Death seems more like a friend. After all, it got to take …

Great Children’s Books and Family Games for Christmas

Published by

As I had promised, when it comes to Christmas gift recommendations this year, there will be no toy in sight on this blog! But there are plenty of other wonderful children’s Christmas presents worth mentioning here, books coming first to mind for me, a declared bookworm and avid reader! We have been reviewing a number of books and games this month and here are some titles that caught our attention or gave us the giggles: Norman, the Slug Who Saved Christmas, by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet We hadn’t heard of Sue Hendra before receiving her latest book, even if she is the illustrator of other hilarious titles like Barry, The Fish With Fingers, Supertato and N0-Bot, The Robot With No Bottom! Norman, the Slug Who Saved Christmas is this year feel-good children’s Christmas book which will amuse young children and parents alike and bring the festive cheer into our homes. Even if the book is designed for younger children, Emma found it truly fun to read and it sits on her nightstand now, along …