Love and loss

In the Dec 11/Jan 12 issue of Melbourne’s Child, I write about what it was like to be struck by grief from two directions just after my first child was born.

The morning after my first daughter was born, my father visited us at the hospital. He brought a stuffed Winnie the Pooh toy for his new granddaughter. I loved that, especially because I remember Dad reading Pooh Bear stories to me when I was little. He did the voices so well.

It’s one of those everyday memories, but it’s only now, eight years on, that I can write about it. You see, Dad visited us by himself because at the same time my mother was in another hospital being treated for lung cancer. She had not wanted aggressive treatment: she was 75 and had smoked for many years before giving up in a courageous late-in-life effort, so her illness came as no surprise to any of us. …

See the print edition for the full story.