Honestly I am at the end of my patience with myself, it seems I don’t know how to do down time. I don’t enjoy lazy hours and resting has a purpose to a certain extend. Everyone is telling me this is my time to relax, work on myself, grieve and any other chill out term there is out there.
I get it, Ireally do, I’ve faced a lot over the last few months, but I thrive on being busy. I get fulfilled by creation, by doing a good job, my being successful. The downtime has now turned into pure boredom.
I need a job desperately.
Financially of course I need to pay bills but more than that I need to start rebuilding my identity. It may not be what I had wanted, but I have no choice but to start creating the new me. I truly believe that there must be a purpose to my life and whilst I did believe it was Daniel and it was for a time, but now Sara has to redefine her life and work for me is a major part.
Interviews are scary though I will admit, I mean it’s been over 12 years since I was last interviewed so it is rather strange. I know I have the knowledge but the experience is really holding me back. I’ve achieved a lot in my lifetime but it’s hard at times for people to see this and often harder for me to evidence this.
Also my husband keeps making suggestions about me cleaning the house and cooking his tea for when he comes home from work. I seriously thought that old chestnut had moved on. Domestic goddess I am not.
All I know is that I’m hoping and praying that the interviews pay off and I get a job. I want to be occupied, I mean my days are endless right now. I want to have something to achieve again. I want to get tired by something rather than my own tears. I want to make Daniel and my girls proud. I want to be proud of myself.
Ok ok I’ve made a rookie error. You know this grief business, well you would think I would be be an expert. Losing three children, one would assume I would have this grief journey down. I wouldn’t need the map or sat nav; this journey should be set in my sub conscious, innate directions.
So why oh why am I finding myself trying to rush through to the end. You know the part where you find some acceptance and maybe a little peace. Come on Sara you should know better that this, there are no short cuts and no quick way through. There isn’t even a toll road that costs you a fortune but cuts out half of the journey time. Nope, no chance,not happening.
No matter how much you don’t want it to the pain of grief has to be lived, the reason why is simple , we love.
Right now it’s perfectly ok and right for me to be lost in the pain of losing Daniel. It’s correct for me to find every breathe painful in missing him. My tears should fall and my heart should be broken because I loved my beautiful boy, I love him, desperately.
Changing the sofa around, painting the walls even maybe putting his toy box out of sight may be what I need to do just to calm the waves but a fresh lick of paint won’t erase the memories of Daniel giggling on the sofa, holding him on my lap, snuggling into my chest, nothing will.
There are no short cuts in grief. What is it the Going on bear hunt book says “you can’t over it, your can’t go under it, you have to go through it”.
I know why I’m trying to push through the pain, the truth is I’m scared I won’t survive it. I survived losing Livvy by the love and need of her sisters, I am truly scared I’m not strong enough to survive losing Daniel.
I’m actually really scared of this darkness I feel.
My whole world changed with Daniels death, my identity as his mom, his carer, his nurse, physio et etc all disappearing with his last breath. He was, my purpose, my joy and my reason. My life was planned with him, I still cannot comprehend a life without him. It’s like my mind just won’t go there, a robot stuck moving back and forth “I just can’t compute, I just can’t compute”.
Oh gosh I’ve sat here thinking how better it would be to be a robot with no feelings, no emotions, no grief ; yet I wouldn’t be happy. I’m a person that feels intensely, if you are loved by me, well you get loved my me. I don’t do half measures. I tell myself I will protect my heart again and again but if I had of done that then I wouldn’t have had the gift of Daniel. I got to love and care for my boy for 6 years, I got to wake up knowing cuddles awaited me, that smiles that would fill my heart would bless my day.
I have spoken and walked through child loss with a number of people over the years ( too many ) and the one thing I tell them is it’s ok to feel broken, it’s ok to feel the pain, because you loved. Give yourself time and to be kind to yourself. This wasn’t how life should be.
Missing someone you love will never be easy and it shouldn’t be. This pain, this agony that I feel now it’s worth it, because I got to love Daniel and if I had to live this pain all over again for just one more moment with my boy I would do so.
So right now all I have to do is be, to be whatever I need me to be, to hold on and allow myself to grieve. There is no rushing grief, it sets it’s own timetable just like love does, as it should because grief is the love we cannot give and I love Daniel intensely.
Give yourself time, be kind to yourself, the pain will ease. I know people mean well and I love them for it, but in all honesty I don’t want time, I don’t want to be kind to myself and the pain, well shouldn’t I always feel it? They say that grief is the love we cannot give so this agony feels right,
As it should be.
I know I’m not helping myself but right now I don’t want to. I’m missing Daniel with such an intensity that I can barely breathe. Everything I see, every room I walk in his absence is suffocating. Everything reminds me of him and how my heart is forever broken missing him.
I just want to scream at God to bring my boy back.
Please.
If you have a faith the pain of losing one you love often lands you in two camps of thought. The first is closer to God, you feel him closer, you find your comfort in his promises. You know that Jesus catches ever tear you cry. You know with a certainty that you will see you loved ones again.
Or the second camp, you are angry, so angry that you cannot believe God had taken the one you love. You tell yourself you cannot believe in a God who does this. One who is all powerful but didn’t save the one you hold in your heart. Faith becomes lost in the pain.
For me I think I’m actually going to make a camp number 3. One where I love God and I know Daniel is with him but one where I really am angry that he didn’t save my son. How or why is my beautiful boy gone from me.
I was thinking as I was writing this that often people speak of a curtain between us. That to trust that Daniel is still close to me and it’s only a curtain that separates the living from those gone before us. Yet I often thing of the scripture when it tells what happened when Jesus was crucified that the curtain was torn in the temple. I want my curtain to be torn. I want Daniel to be here not behind a curtain or in another room, I want him here in my arms.
I want that curtain torn down.
I want to kiss the top of his sweet head and I want to feel his heartbeat next to mine. I want to hold him in my arms once more. I want it as it should be.
I want
I want
I want.
Please
“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split. “
Ouch it hurts, an email, a simple email has left me sobbing into my pillow. No names nothing personal so why am I so heartbroken? I will tell you why, it’s because of what should have been.
Let me explain I opened up my Email and clicked the first one it’s become such a second nature thing to do I didn’t even check before I opened. It was Fatface the lovely, gorgeous brand Fatface telling me all about the new collaboration between themselves and the Marine conservation society. The email says something like ( I deleted rather quickly) “let your little one help save the seas”. Well along those lines, it was hard to read through the tears.
You see Daniel loved nature, he watched documentaries from Steve Backshall on the sharks and he got so cross at the damage we were doing to the oceans and even his Easter bonnet design was going to be a Save our Seas one, complete with plastic rubbish and a trapped turtle. But we didn’t get to make it and unfortunately I won’t be getting to buy him these clothes and support this fantastic cause. So I cried and to be honest I’m still crying. Seven isn’t enough time and no matter how thankful I am for the years we had together, they will never fill the void of how much I miss my beautiful boy.
So here I am sharing this campaign not for any obligation and I’m not working with the brand but because I know Daniel would want me to. Take a look and if this isn’t your thing or isn’t suitable for you just remember we can all do something simple to help save our oceans and do it for Daniel because Daniel was and always will be my little eco warrior.
How i remember my girls taking their first baby steps. Kennedy completely bypassed crawling she was up on her feet before she was one. I mean she wasn’t going to get her dresses dirty rolling around on the floor. Eden was a crawler she walked early but wasn’t fussed how she got somewhere as long as she got there and Livvy well she was a late walker but could crawl faster than the speed of light ( slight exaggeration there but you get the picture.) and of course my baby girl Brodie, her want for
50 pairs of shoes had her up and running early too . I guess what I’m trying to say is we all go at our own pace and we have to allow ourselves time to make those baby steps.
Oh don’t I sound so calm and wise yet the reason I’m writing this is because I was so angry at myself today and felt like I have failed but now on reflection I don’t think I did.
You see I tried to return to church today, we haven’t been in the building since before the pandemic and I knew my anxiety would be high returning but that was when in my plans Daniel was with us. Walking in there today without my beautiful boy was agony. Daniel loved church, he especially loved the worship he would just shout out not always to the tune of the song but who carers he was telling the world how much he loves God. I remember his cheeky way he tried to take over the service when our leader was talking, how the more I tried to quieten him the louder he got. I miss the way he would pull into me when we prayed, when we loved on those that needed prayer and those that didn’t realise that they did. At home Daniel would sit in my lap and when we prayed he would pull me closer to him. Listening intensely to make sure he heard the words, the need.
So yes today was hard but I had been determined to go to church and I mean if you are going to fall apart it’s best to do it with family. I did okay I appreciated my hugs and wishes I was calm and ok well until the worship started. As James’s voice lifted up my heart shattered into pieces. Where was my boy, why wasn’t he here, his voice not there for me to here broke me. I tried and I really did try but be it the words of the song or the emptiness of my arms I had to leave. You know the moment when your crying becomes beyond control your sobs become loud and shallow yes that was the one. So I left, I just had too. Our church leader came and chatted with me and Alan and I calmed myself down but I was so cross at myself , I was cross I couldn’t find comfort in a place that brought Daniel lots of joy. But I just could not.
But you know what, baby steps.
After we left the church we decided to go to the food festival in Lichfield, our plan had been to go yesterday but my grief had other plans. Instead I sobbed until I gave myself a migraine, wasn’t the best of a plan really was it, oh well. Anyway off we went, it was super stressful even parking made me want to turn round and just go home. It wasn’t helped by my husband’s aggravation at the lack of parking spaces and definitely those who do not use indicators. I honestly thought he was going to combust. It’s strange how anxiety can make you feel, Alan gets cross at people, I start apologising for breathing.
Anyway we parked and we walked around the food stalls. I’m not going to say I enjoyed it,the vast amount of people was beyond overwhelming and after shielding for over two years having that many people around me was too much. But it was the missing that got me, now don’t get me wrong there is no chance Daniel would open his eyes at that festival it would have definitely been sensory overload but his missing presence was felt in so many ways. Firstly we just got out the car and left, no checking of bags unclipping of wheelchairs, making sure we have blankets and so on. Secondly we realised today that we used Daniels wheelchair as a ram, pushing through the crowds with the wheels getting knocked not us. It was just so strange even the knowledge that the only reason we could actually be there was because Daniel was gone. Crap that hurts.
So I managed as long as I could, Alan enjoyed a burger which he described as “the best ever”. I got overwhelmed by the choice and came home for my cornflakes.
But guess what I went and tried and last week I couldn’t have done that so as they say , Baby steps.
I have been asked by a number of people if I would share what I said at Daniel’s celebration of life and to be honest I wasn’t sure as it was me being honest and very vulnerable. Then I was reminded that’s what I do I share my heart to allow others to share theirs. So here is my speech please if you don’t like it keep that to yourself because this was literally just for my beautiful boy.
My beautiful boy, my son.
“It is said that grief is the love that you cannot give so right now this pain feels validated, feels true. You see Daniel I love you with every breathe I take. From the moment I met you I fell in love, breaking all the rules but not caring at all. The day you officially came our son it was day that the the legality caught up with what my heart already knew, you were my boy, you were my son.
Thank you Daniel for reminding me of the joy in the world, for allowing me to love you with no restrictions. It has been a gift to be so needed, to be your safe space, to be your person. I’m not sure how to go on with this endless void in my heart but I will try for you. You fought to live with a strength that is beyond comparison, if love could have saved you well we wouldn’t be here today.
How I wish I could hold your hand in mine again, how I could run my hands through your thick crazy hair. How I could feel your head on my chest and your gentle breathing in the place your called home, my arms they ache to hold you. My lap feels empty and lost.
Daniel your Daddy misses you so much, his Grand Prix buddy or sofa naps excuse. How he wishes he could moan again about the number of clothes, shoes, coats you needed, well I believed you needed. How even his fear of animals was lost in your excitement.
Daniel Robert you were a gift, a mind so full of questions always wanting to learn more. Your love of animals was unbeatable, your desire to put your hand up a cows bum unrepeatable.
Your love of nature was inspiring, teaching us to slow down and really take in the glory of our world. We listened to the trees as they danced on the wind, marvelled in the bird song, and cherished the fragrance of the flowers.
Daniel you loved God with all your heart, how I will miss hearing you sing along to worship. How I wish you would try and shout over Tim once again in church . Our prayers, oh my our prayers how you prayed for those you loved with a compassion beyond your years. You prayed so hard for your sisters, for their happiness, their hope. I know you are still praying over them and hopefully having words with the big guy up there.
I used to call you my little old man, childrens tv or music you didn’t care for. The documentaries, zoo programs and of course your complete favourite the Yorkshire vet. I’m going to miss your Dad complaining, so sure that we had fixed a prolapse viewing for every mealtime on purpose. We didn’t but maybe now I will.
Oh Daniel my beautiful boy, You touched the lives and hearts of everyone who met you. Your cheeky Elvis smile, your dirty looks all part of your character that we loved. You were joy, hope and faith all rolled into one handsome cute package.
So many people here today will miss you, your nurses and your flirting, the hiding in your hospital room for sneaky cuddles, you loved them all. Your Drs all inspired by your courageous spirit and your ability not to do it the usual way, always the Daniel way. “That’s Daniel”
Daniel you were a gift to us all, you gave us all hope again, you taught us to love hard once more. Right now I’m not sure I will ever fully love again but I know that’s not what you would want from me. Not the legacy you would choose.
I will feel you Daniel in the wind that blows around me, In the flowers that bloom and in the dancing of the trees.
Thank you my son for giving me the gift of loving you. Thank you for loving me with a need unlike I have every known.
Thank you Daniel for being my son, my forever beautiful boy. Now go dance with Livvy and sit in the arms of Jesus until we meet again.
I did it again, I pressed my phone to call your Daddy to ask him if he had put you on your milk yet. Why is my body still waking me a month after we have lost you? Why is my normal no longer my own?
Oh Daniel there are not enough words in the languages of the world to explain how much I’m missing you. Even now as I lie here unable to sleep I know I haven’t accepted the fact that you have gone. I’m a mess, a complete utter mess and for once in my life I do not care. My mind isn’t full of wondering, afraid if others are judging me in my sorrow, I don’t give a monkeys it hurts, it’s agony.
The house still echoes of you, our home, your home, your scent still lingers on the air. I’m still using your shampoo as a body wash so I can smell your sweet scent of strawberries all around me. It’s running out, would it be weird to buy it again? Maybe I will search for an actual strawberry scented body wash. Maybe that’s a compromise. How I hate that word right now “compromise” it feels that’s all I am having to do. Grieve whilst trying to move forward. Rest whilst job hunting, always having to give a little when I really haven’t got a lot left anymore.
I don’t have you anymore.
Oh Danny, I know they will call me soon to collect your equipment and whilst I know you are free from the disabilities that made you need them, letting them go is part of an acceptance I have yet to reach. I’m scared of the emptiness their return will leave behind. I know I have to do it at some point, there is so much to sort out. Your wardrobe is full of new summer clothes you have yet to wear. No sorry clothes you will never wear. This sucks!
Your toy box is still in the living room, your book case full to the brim. Talking of books the new book written by Jacqueline Wilson came today, it shocked my heart. I had forgotten that we had put it on pre-order, “ A new adventure of the Faraway tree” do you think Moonface will still be in it ,maybe Silky too. We loved reading the original written by Enid Blyton together, I’m sure we would have loved this one too. Maybe when I get you home I will read to you. Is that a strange thing to do? Maybe I will just curl up under your blanket with Edgar and read it. Yes I’m going to cry, come on everything is making me cry. Do you know how hard losing you has been?
I guess I need to try and sleep, the irony is that now I have no one waking me at every two hours but I’m sleeping less than ever. I am hiding in my bedroom more than I should be, I’m not sleeping I’m just pretending you are downstairs with your Daddy. I know it’s not helping but let’s be honest nothing does.
Hey beautiful boy, I’m trying I promise I am. Giving up would be easy but I know you and Livvy didn’t teach me that way. Your both fought to live; I promise I will try to honour that. You guys need to help though, sprinkle me with some heart healing dust from heaven, how I wish that was a real thing. I remind myself that I “grieve with Hope” well I’m working on the Hope part, but I’ve got the grieving down perfect.
Oh my gorgeous handsome son, missing you is so so hard. Just to hold your hand in mine once more, yet I know once more is never enough, would never be enough.
So it’s been a month my dear boy, one whole month since your took your last breathe this side of heaven as you lay in my arms. As I held your body close to mine your spirit ran to Jesus.
Until my time comes, until I can run to you and Livvy.
Ouch, my heart is beating so quick it’s a question a simple question.
Do you care for someone?
Job applications, oh my goodness when did they become so in-depth I mean I’m literally waiting for the question asking me my bra size. How much do employers need to know to see if I’m suitable for a job, why does the number of dependents matter? Are they only after those without. Then the realisation hits, I don’t have any dependents any more. My girls are adults they don’t depend on me. No one does, then to knock the realisation out of the ball park, the final question, do you care for someone?
Ok ok please leave me alone. Isn’t it hard enough that I’m applying for jobs I never expected to have. That my world looks completely different to the one I was in a month ago.
How much more of this pain can I take?
Oh my goodness how hard, too hard.
I know people have told me not to job hunt yet but obviously the bills still need paying and the day the one you care for dies, all payments stop. Giving myself time isn’t a option. Also the truth is time is something I have too much of right now. The days are endless and I mean endless. I swear my days are now made up of 48 hours not 24.
I need a focus, I need a challenge. I’m not the kind of person who can sit still I thrive on being challenged and I love being busy. Yes I have to learn some boundaries for my health and well-being but I need to do something. But what, and who am I now? For the last 13 years I’ve been a proud foster carer but after losing Daniel I cannot do this right now. Maybe in the future but not right now. I need something different, something that doesn’t make the familiar painful. Does this make sense?
But beyond being a foster carer who am I? I’m definitely not the dance teacher I was in my 20’s that’s for sure.
Could I do something in my passion, could I use my words to earn me a living? I would love that but have no idea how to make that happen.
Could I continue to advocate? When I write, speak and fight for equality and against discrimination the words form themselves. My passion allows the letters to fall from my fingers. It matters, I want it to matter.
So who, what and how?
If you haven’t caught up yet the reality is I’m in pain, I’m lost and I really want direction.
But it isn’t. It’s a symbol of the life we lived, the life we lost.
The boy we have lost.
This van was our escape to the Yorkshire moors, our spaceship to the land of green fields and so, so many cows. It was Daniels and with its return it’s another piece of my beautiful boy that I have to lose.
It’s not only a van, it’s a vehicle full of so many memories that I can never repeat. A vehicle with blemish’s created from adventures. Sand from the beach, leaves from the trees and a wheelchair now devastatingly empty.
Every piece of equipment taken away feels like a vicious blow to my stomach. I’m nauseous with the pain of loss. I know we don’t need them anymore but my goodness it’s just not fair.
We should be packed up ready to go visit with Daniels favourites, to feel my heart slow in it’s dance as we pass the border into Gods own country. I should be parked up by the river with my gorgeous boy on my lap feeding the ducks. Listening to the sounds that they make, laughing at Dads reluctance to come close.
How many “ should i’s” can one heart take, we are only weeks in and there has already been too many. How in the world can I survive a lifetime of this?
Grief is not new to me but this pain is unique unlike anything I have ever known, anything I have ever felt. It’s grief for Daniel, individual for my beautiful boy. Pain twisted in the memories that we shared, agony in the cuddles we won’t get to share again.
To say I miss him feels like the understatement of my life, I literally feel like I’m walking about with my heart missing. Breathing is pained by grief, my memories are torturous.
So as the van leaves the driveway for the last time. It takes with it a dent of my bollard hitting moment. The scratches of bushes too close to the sides but most of all it takes away another part of a life that I cannot live again.
When I started my first blog in 2008 it was to share my life as a mom to four amazing girls. My third daughter Livvy, had a neurological disorder called Rett Syndrome. I wanted to share how life with a child with disabilities was hard but also one full of joy. Well as the irony of life is that joy quickly turned to sadness when I lost my beautiful girl to a rare virus that happened due to her disorder and my heart was broken into pieces. It was then I was ready to close down my online space and disappear into the pain of my grief but I was encouraged to share my heart, to share my pain in hope that maybe it would make others facing the same thing feel less alone. This is what I did and I have many moments that I’m so grateful that that’s what I chose to do.
Over the last 6 years the story of my life on these pages was changing, yes I was still grieving for Olivia but through the presence of a special handsome little boy my life began to fill with joy, with laughter and with hope once again. Daniel entered my life, an emergency weekend placement that became my forever son. My beautiful, beautiful boy. Yes he had his mega list of complexities but more than that he had a smile that blessed my heart and a cuddle that made me feel whole again.
Yet I didn’t get to feel whole for long because on my 46th birthday my heart was tore to pieces once again. On the 27th April 2022 Daniel went home to Jesus. The virus known as Covid 19 claimed another life., it stole my beautiful boy.
I have no idea what to do now, my purpose has gone. When Livvy died her sisters were so much younger they needed me. This time they are adults and in fact I really need them. You see I’m lost, I’m hurting and in all honesty I am broken. I have no idea or desire to do this life without Daniel. Through the Grace of God I survived losing Livvy but right now I have no idea how to survive this pain.
Daniel needed me in a way that allowed me to be free. To allow my heart to live its destiny of loving hard. Daniel taught me how to use my voice and to advocate for him and all children with disabilities. To not hide any more but to shine in loving him.
My light isn’t shining now. I am so very lost. Do I return back to these pages and share my heart once more or have the words already been said.
Will the story read too familiar?
I have no idea, I really don’t. How do you journal the lost of another child? Do I really or should I really put words to the devastation I feel? Will putting them out there for others to see blow back at me. I do not know.
All I know right now is that I’m so very lost, I don’t know my purpose anymore and my heart, well it’s forever broken.
Rebel with kindness 