All posts filed under: Writing

When Lily met Arkoudaki

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Emma loves cuddlies. She has always loved them,her favourite is Hippo Hips, a big and soft “girl” hippo she had rescued from among the elephants on a wet day in Ikea. She also has two other very special teddies, to remind her of Georgie. I wasn’t surprised when, on our flight from London to Zante two weeks ago, she asked me to buy her Lily, the easyJet mascot teddy. And I couldn’t say no. I didn’t want to say no. When you lose a child, it is hard to say no to your surviving one. So we got Lily and took her with us on our Greek odyssey. Lily proved the ideal travelling companion. She was polite and pleasant yet quite daring in her culinary choices and insisted on trying the local sweets in Zante, as you can see for yourselves: In no time, she had been promoted to be Emma’s day cuddly (no-one can replace Hippo at night, sorry!) and the two of them became inseparable. She fitted perfectly into our family, quite literally. …

Magic Moments: Our Halloween break in Greece

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We were away for our Halloween break to Greece. Emma’s birthday is on the 6th of November and her grandparents and auntie were desperate to see her, especially since last summer they didn’t get the chance, and make memories with her. The trip was dedicated to Emma. I knew that it would be very taxing on me, emotionally and physically. As a bereaved parent, and so early on in the grieving process, I knew I would not enjoy much as the pain does follow, wherever we are. But I needed Emma to know she is loved and her life is celebrated and brings us joy, even more so after the loss of our precious baby boy. The relatives went to great lengths to make the trip magical for Emma. Especially her auntie, who lives on a small pension and has known grief as a child herself, having lost her father at a very young age. So Emma got to: – meet princess Maria and spend an hour of laughter and fun and magic tricks in …

On the first day of Christmas…

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“On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me: A Partridge in a Pear Tree.” 45 days to Christmas, hard to believe, isn’t it, where has this year flown? Today marks the beginning  of my blog’s Christmas advent calendar of posts and my invitation to share in the anticipation: the next month and a half will delight my readers with a variety of reviews of beautiful products and Christmas gift inspiration. Of course, for us as a bereaved family, this Christmas will be very difficult as it will be the first one without our Georgie. But I am trying very hard and making a conscious effort to see the beauty in this season, despite the anticipated pain. For Emma’s sake, most importantly. And for us, as a couple, as this could be a time to recharge and grow closer if we prepare wisely for it. Preparation, per definition, is “the action or process of making ready or being made ready for use or consideration”, “something done to get ready for an event …

No next stage…

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November should have been such a happy month in our household! It is Emma’s birthday and she will be turning 5, which means it is time for me to start looking for deals on booster car seats((I found a good range on Tesco Direct). Today, Georgie should have been nine months too. At five, Emma gets to move into a “big girl” car seat, which she has been looking forward to forever! At nine months Georgie would have progressed in to his toddler car seat, the group 1, front facing, easier to make eye contact with mummy one. I have been pretty good at avoiding things that make my heart sore. I have found myself avoiding baby clothing websites and nappy aisles as soon as he passed away. But the car seat remains a landmark in my mind, seared in my memory. Emma gets to move on, as any child should naturally do. She has grown so fast over the summer and fits well into 5 to 6 year old clothes and shoes. Georgie should …

31 Days of Grief: Community vs. Retreat

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I am running behind with this writing challenge so I will most likely write in clusters of two from now on, especially since we will be travelling to Greece this weekend and will be away the whole Halloween week. Last week we remembered, as a community of bereaved parents, our lost children. It was a bitter sweet evening, seeing the Internet light up with candles and the realisation that so many beloved souls are away, waiting for us in Heaven. We also took Saturday evening to spend with local bereaved families, get to know them and their surviving children and remember together our babies, gone too soon. I am so grateful for this community to which we were only introduced this September and I am so thankful that we do not have to do this journey alone. The pain of losing a child is terrible but carrying the burden alone is equally painful. I am also grateful for the fact that Emma has found friends among the children present there and she now understands that …