Author: Oana

Inside Out- A Bereaved Mother’s Review

Published by Oana

Yesterday, we had one of those Sundays when we were too tired to get into the car and drive somewhere so we decided to go and watch the Inside Out movie instead. I had heard loads about it and read various reviews, especially by bereaved mothers who had found it brilliant and I was curious to watch it and form an opinion myself. The plot is deceptively simple: a little girl, a life changing move to the big city, the emotional turmoil that follows, all seen from inside out, through the prism of her emotions: Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. But the movie is far from being simplistic in the message it tries to convey: emotions make us who we are and that by trying to repress one or another, we end up ruining our whole system of reference and risk to become emotionally dead, like the little girl does, for a short while. As bereaved parents, we watched the movie through the lens of our loss, of course. We heard things that made …

What this mummy loved in…September

Published by Oana

I have entered a season of change and I have felt the almost overwhelming need to look after myself in the last month. In my last personal post I was talking about taking time off to figure out how things will go from here. Things haven’t been as straight forward as I would have needed them to be, as, in spite of being signed off work for a couple of weeks, peace has eluded me. Hubby suffers from what we now know to be SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and instead of being able to rest, I have been worrying constantly last week about him (as his sadness seems to be much worse this year) and the future. So, my only way to find peace has been to draw on things that have brought me joy in drops this season. Here is a list of things that this stressed out mummy has found comfort in this past month: Self-care, in the form of Bach flower remedies as drops into my drinking water, a little pampering session …

Back to School Heroes

Published by Oana

The schools have been back for almost a month and most our children have already been through their first set of school-related sickness or even worse, visit to the doctor or the pharmacist! I have been sent all month of September things to try out with Emma, that would prevent some of the normal ailments and plagues children get once they return to school and into a germ-exchanging community, so to say :-). Very high on my list is Picksan, NO LICE, a new lice preventative stray. I work in a school environment too so picking lice is a genuine concern at times. Fortunately , we were sent Picksan which is supposed to be a “natural and effective approach for preventing and treating head lice for your family.” NO LICE! Preventative Spray and LICE STOP Shampoo Treatment are natural and scientifically proven applications for preventing and treating head lice for the whole family, from children age 3 to adults. In their press release, Picksan says “It’s well known that head lice are becoming increasingly resistant …

A Season For Change

Published by Oana

I need to make some changes in my life and I need time to understand what they need to be. I have been waking up again at night, for the past week. Every SINGLE night! It is the sort of full wakefulness that gets me up at 3 a.m. and keeps my head busy for hours. It got me so desperate for head peace that I had to ask work for a redistribution of my working hours, so that I can have two days a week to rest and think and decide what the next stage of my life is supposed to be. Decision is pending and my sanity does seem to be pending on the decision, to a degree. It does feel like my grief has reached a new stage. Our wonderful social workers, from the Royal and the Hospice, both had warned me that grief changes and stages like this are completely natural. Ha, the natural of the completely unnatural process of grieving for your lost child… Shortly after I lost Georgie, I …