Sometimes things run their natural course. Sometimes things change without you realising it. Some things can go on and on and on, or they can end while they are still good, leaving happy memories with you that make you smile. Take the last episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. I absolutely love that series.…
Articles / bereavement / Blog / Chromosome 15 Duplication Syndrome / Cleft Lip / Cleft Palate / empty armed mother / Francesco Enrico Ventura / hyper fertility / Loss / Mother's Day
It is March 2018, and right now my life has never been more settled, and I’ve never been as happy since April 2012 to November 2013. That time period was the last time I felt truly happy – in that time I got together with my now husband, got engaged to him, my work, festivals…
Articles / Blog / empty armed mother / Grief / Keeping Going / Loss / Stillbirth / Support
I’m sure that many of you reading this will be familiar with the film “The Matrix” from 1999 starring Keanu Reeves. While in places it was quite confusing, the basic premise of the film was that humans have been enslaved by artificial intelligence machines who have them “plugged in” to the Matrix which they believe…
Last year I was heavily inspired by a Facebook update from one of my good friends who was a huge help to me as a volunteer for the first ever Worcestershire Literary Festival that I founded and ran back in 2011. So inspired I was by this post that I posted a comment on it…
Blog / Grief / Keeping Going / Positivity / Support / Surviving / Things I've Learnt
On Monday 1 January 2018 I was browsing LinkedIn and I noticed this post from a contact I have called Mark Sephton: When I read it I thought what a great idea! Having been off course with setting myself relevant goals over the past few years this seemed like a great way of getting things down…
Happy new year to you all, I hope that 2018 is a prosperous and happy new year for you. I’m really looking forward to the challenges and the new year ahead and hope to write much more for this blog in the new year. Whatever you are doing tonight, have fun but most of all…
Well, here we are again at the end of a year, and so soon too. It doesn’t seem like two minutes ago that I was getting ready to see in 2017 this time last year, and I do realise that I haven’t been keeping this blog as up to date as I would have liked.…
Dear West Midlands Ambulance Service and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Many of us have watched the recent “Ambulance” series on BBC 1 and “999: What’s Your Emergency” on Channel 4. We know how hard you all work, and we know that you get abuse and treated badly by many people who ring 999 daily.…
I know, I know….I have not been as good as updating this blog recently. This is one project where my Libran indecisiveness, which I have in abundance, has been very much at play and over the last year I’ve had a strong should I/shouldn’t I write in it and update it mentality. I’m busy working…
“It was the year of fire… the year of destruction… the year we took back what was ours. It was the year of rebirth… the year of great sadness… the year of pain… and the year of joy. It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed.…
I was proud and honoured to be asked to help at a charity concert last weekend by my good friend Rev’d David Southall, who organised a “Voices For Health” concert to raise funds for the Meadow Birth Centre and the Fay Turner Suite at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital. An amazing £650.00 was raised at the…
It is ironic that a couple of weeks or so ago I wrote this post entitled “The Power Of Forgiveness” about being betrayed by people who I thought were my friends and about how forgiving them had allowed me to move on with my life and achieve things I had never thought possible. Of course,…
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. Martin…
Peeks up tentatively to say hello….. And yes, I know that a few months ago, I said I was going to wind Frankie’s Legacy as a blog down. I know I said I was going to get a new blog going called “Happiness Personified”. But that didn’t happen. None of it happened. So what DID…
On August 28th 1963, Martin Luther King stood up and said four words that changed the world – “I have a dream.” I too have a dream. In fact I have lots of dreams…. I have a dream that I am the mother of a strapping two and a half year old little boy. He…
I know that I posted on November 14th 2015 saying that “all good things must come to an end” with the intention of moving over to my new blog “Happiness Personified”, which at the time seemed like the right thing to do. At that point I had just laid Frankie to rest along with my…
Dear Zia Maria, Zia….that’s Italian for Aunty. But you have been so much more to me than just an Aunty. You were always there for me to help, guide and advise from the moment I was born. You helped to look after me, to bring me up and you were a constant part of my…
Last Sunday I had the honour of being asked to read at the Worcestershire Acute NHS Trust Staff Appreciation Service at Worcester Cathedral. I was asked to give an account of my experience with the NHS and the hospital, and writing something for the event came very easily to me. I wanted to say a…
I’m thrilled to announce that I have again been shortlisted in this year’s Butterfly Awards, a prestigious annual event which focuses on recognising and celebrating organisations and individuals who work tirelessly to raise awareness of early pregnancy loss, stillbirth and neonatal death and provide much needed support services for bereaved parents. Rev’d David Southall, Chaplain…
7th September 2015 Press Release – Immediate Hospital Chaplain And Bereaved Mother Nominated In Inspirational Mother And Bereavement Worker Categories In Prestigious National Awards A bereaved mother from Worcester and a Chaplain from the Worcestershire Royal Hospital have been nominated in the 2015 Butterfly Awards, a prestigious annual event which focuses on recognising and celebrating…
I wrote in my last blog entry about how busy this August has been compared to previous ones. Usually in August I start to twiddle my thumbs and wish the month away so that things can get back to normal in September after the holiday season. Everything seems to shut down, people are away on…
Gosh, it has been a while since my last post on here, and yet….it feels like it was just two minutes ago since I was posting about losing my beloved German Shepherd Curley. So much has happened since then, so many more trials and tribulations, so many more things to deal with. My life seems…
It is a week today since I lost Curley, and I still feel lost and devastated without her. But as hard as it is, I have to try and carry on. She wouldn’t want me to mope, I know she wouldn’t, just as Frankie wouldn’t want me to mope. It’s funny, but since I was…
It is now 4 days PC (post Curley) and it is only now that I feel able to write about how I feel. What I’m about to say may shock some of you reading this, although some of you will hopefully understand it. How I feel about losing my Curley is right up there with…
Dear Frankie, At 7.27pm last Friday night you were probably greeted with the sight of a young German Shepherd running towards you with a big smile on her face and wagging her tail. You didn’t get to see her, but you heard her barking and felt her head resting against you when you were in…
Frankie's Legacy: Love, Loss Grief & Recovery 