Our six month pregnant daughter's medical emergency on Cup Final day of '05, ended in double tragedy, with mum, as well as baby beyond help. Devastatingly, my husband and I weren't with them. Halfway through a two week holiday in Spain, we received a call on that evening at 9.00 p.m. Spanish time. My sister-in-law sadly told us, "Concerned baby wasn't moving, Denise went to hospital this afternoon. They may have to sacrifice the baby. The medical team recommend you come back." Denise had been feeling 'not right' and on sick leave since Friday May 6th, yet phone calls to the midwife and two different doctors' appointments had assured us all was well. At the airport next morning, having secured tickets for the earliest flight home, I rang Denise's sister Faye, to learn not only had we lost our first grandchild - we'd lost our daughter too; unbelievably, both gone the night before. To hear this news in an airport surrounded by tanned smiling faces was surreal. On top of that we'd later learn a vein was punctured during treatment, causing cardiac arrest. First and foremost a book about living, Ordinary Lives was written to hold on to normality till reality could be faced, and whilst a heart-warming memoir of family life, it lays bare the heartbreak of losing a child. Our emotional struggle to closure, against unfair barriers to the truth, is disturbingly a frequent occurrence - and one of which very few are aware.
A gentle bitter-sweet tale, Ordinary Lives ends as it starts with new life beginning; new love to embrace. Quite simply, it's a testament to family love - that unbroken connection between those we've lost, and those yet to come!
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