Today Thomas has reached the age that Jessica was when she died. From tomorrow, my first-born child will become the youngest. The natural order of things will be turned on its head yet again, as it has been many times since the moment Jessica died. Another painful milestone on our grief journey. Another reminder of… Read More
When it comes to describing life as a bereaved parent and living with grief, there are two analogies I tend to use. The first is that of grief as a stormy sea. It is a sea that carries me further and further away from my life with Jessica, no matter how much I wish it… Read More
When I look at my life as a parent, it is very sharply divided into two. Life when Jessica was here with us, and life after losing Jessica. There is a huge chasm between the two lives that marks the moment Jessica died. A life before we knew the agonising pain of child loss, and… Read More
The other day, I was having a little bit of a battle with Sophie over her home learning. Just one of those ordinary everyday moments of family life. Not something that I would have expected to have been a big grief trigger. But then I remembered doing home schooling with Jessica after her surgery and… Read More
Grief is something that many people struggle to know how to react to. When someone you know loses someone they love, it can be hard to know what to do or say. Death is often a bit of a taboo subject, and many people feel awkward when trying to console someone who is bereaved. In… Read More
Christmas can be a tough time of year to navigate, especially as a bereaved parent. It feels like there is a lot of pressure to be happy at this time of year. Grief can be a taboo subject at the best of times, but more so at Christmas. There are memories of previous happy Christmases… Read More
Today is National Bereaved Parents Day which aims to raise awareness of all parents who have lost a child of any age, and from any circumstance. The theme this year is ‘Keeping Their Memory Alive’. As a bereaved parent, one of the most important things to me is to be able to talk about Jessica,… Read More