Our first Summer without Mia was particularly hard.
It was hard as we grieved for all the hopes and dreams that we had for her. We felt saddened that we would not get to make the memories that we had hoped for during our Summers together.
Even going on a family day trip without her was unbearable. It was so difficult to leave her behind as our car drove passed her graveyard, and her sisters waved in.
On our first Summer break without Mia, it helped to bring her photograph album in my suitcase, and I gazed at her whenever I needed to.
We usually spend time near the ocean during the Summer. I have found that being near the ocean makes me feel closer to her.
As I walk on the sand and hear the crashing waves, I think of her, and it makes me long for her to be here with us along with her big sister and her twin sister.
We always now write her name in the sand and take a photograph of it anytime that we go to the ocean so that she is remembered and included in our family.
The Summertime also allows us to cut Mia’s grass at her grave, and pot some colourful blooms there.
We also love to plant beautiful Summer flowers in her memorial fairy garden at our home.
It is lovely to enjoy our time off together during the Summer with our girls, but it is also good to allow ourselves to remember and acknowledge Mia’s absence as well.
Niamh Connolly-Coyne is mother to three daughters Alice and twins Emma and Mia. Mia passed away a few weeks before she was born. She had a heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
Niamh lives in Ireland. She set up an awareness / advocacy group for bereaved parents who have experienced loss in a multiple pregnancy called Peas in a Pod: loss in a multiple pregnancy @peasinapodireland. Niamh hopes also to create more awareness and inclusion of the needs of parents who have lost a baby from a multiple pregnancy through campaign and lobbying work.
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