My dearest Aoibh
I’m not really sure how it now 5 years since you were born, it feels like it was both yesterday and a lifetime ago. I guess it will always feel like that.
Recently I’ve been thinking about the different people who spoke to me in the early days after we lost you, women who had walked this path before me. One who told me she no longer feels she needs to visit her child’s grave every day, which seemed so unbelievable to me. But yet here I am now, content that I don’t have to visit your grave every day to know you are with me- I imagine you floating just above me, keeping an eye on things. Your brother thinks that the little bronze angel on your grave is you, and I like that idea too.
Another woman encouraged me to keep the blanket we cuddled you in, rather than it going with you, and spoke of how she keeps hers under her pillow. Sometimes she holds it every day, sometimes it is only the changing of the sheets that reminds her it is there. Again in those early days I couldn’t imagine it- I held your blanket tightly, had it packed in my bag wherever I went. Now sometimes I sit with it for while, trying hard to remember how it felt to hold you in it, other times weeks pass without being drawn it.
Sometimes I hear the story of others who have lost babies and wonder how they are carrying such a heavy burden, forgetting for a moment that this is my burden too.
I spent so long in the early days searching the internet for something that might tell me things would be ok, advise me how to cope with this grief. One description helped me the most- grief is like a ball in a square room. At first the ball is large, hitting off the walls over and over, the pains of grief feeling never ending. But in time the ball grows smaller, still hitting off the walls, but much less frequently.
I suppose that’s where I am now- sometimes the grief hits me like a boulder and I go from easily telling your story, to barely being able to utter your name. Particularly when I think of all you are missing, and will continue to miss. But I now can see joy and happiness again. I use our story to push me forward, to help others, to be that person that hopefully can give one person at the beginning of this awful road hope that life and grief can coexist.
I suppose I’m really trying to say thank you, thank you for teaching me so many lessons, for making me a mum, and giving me the strength to say your name to help others. Today we celebrate you, and try to hold on to that feeling when you were born- love, happiness, joy, and hope. I know there will be pain in the coming days, but that’s ok too.
I will love you forever
Your adoring Mum xx