Guest Blog: Life is Precious

This is a guest blog from Angie clementson (My mum) this is a story close to her heart, it starts from when she was a child and was diagnosed with an illness and the triumphs she achieved to the joy that has come from becoming a mother and sadness for mourning the loss of a child.

What I am going to tell you made me appreciate that what you have is precious…

My story begins...At the age of 7 I was being treated for a bout of sore throat and tonsillitis.  The antibiotics did not appear to be working but my parents decided, on the doctor’s orders, to continue with the holiday we had planned as the fresh air may do me with world of good.  Little did they know that for the next 6 months I would be lying in a hospital bed in Ormskirk, miles away from home, having fought for my life for 48 hours.  It was at this point that I was diagnosed with diabetes.  I learnt to walk again as I had lost all movement in my legs and understood that the rest of my life would be different, although that was not what I wanted as even at that young I was a really determined person.  I dropped back a year in school but soon caught up.  One thing I was told was that it may affect my chances of ever having a baby.

In 1982, I met my wonderful husband and in 1985 we married.  We both understood that the chances of having a child were remote so we continued with our lives, buying a house, setting up a home and doing things newlyweds do.  It was a complete surprise when in 1990, after horse riding and feeling extremely ill afterwards, that I was told that I was pregnant and our baby was due in February the next year. 

It was not too bad a pregnancy although we did have an early scare and I had to frequently go to the hospital for checkups and scans.  Then January came, and so did the pains.  I was rushed into hospital and confined to bed rest as they thought that 8 weeks early was too much.  However, baby had other ideas and at 7.25am on the morning of 22^nd January 1991, our beautiful daughter Hannah Rose appeared.  She was in SBCU for 2 weeks as she had arrived 7 weeks premature but at 5lb 2oz had the energy and fight to deal with it. 

Then to our complete surprise in 1994 we were told we were having baby number two.  This started off as an ordinary pregnancy but during the3rd month I was rushed into hospital with a suspected miscarriage.  I was taken for a scan and was told that actually I had not lost the baby but possibly one of two as twins run in both families.  I was told to carry on with my life as normal and to continue attending check ups.  Everything was going fine until March 1995.  Two days before my 30^th birthday I developed a real pain in my stomach.  Suspecting something was wrong I asked my husband to take me to maternity.   They did checkups and told me everything was okay and that baby was fine and so was I.  Later that afternoon, things were not right and I was rushed back into hospital.   Sadly, later that evening, Hannah’s beloved sister, Chloe Anne, was stillborn.  They told me that there had been nothing they could do as the placenta had ruptured and given way.   I was extremely lucky to be alive as the whole situation had been really traumatic, I will spare the horrific details.

The next few weeks were the worst in my life, and I am sure that had I not had Hannah at home to come and cuddle I would have cracked completely.  Chloe’s funeral was arranged and unfortunately was on my husband’s birthday.  We did not ask for flowers but for any donations to be given to Child Leukemia charity.  Seeing people pushing prams and pushchairs reduced me to tears but I gradually learnt to talk to people.   Although at the time I was incensed by the unfairness of the situation but as time went by, my sorrow eased.  I began to realise that I had a life to live.  It was decided that we would have no more children.  I don’t think either of us could go through what had happened again.

As the years have passed I still remember Chloe on the 5^th March and visit the cemetery where she was cremated. We have made sure that as Hannah grew up knowing that she had a sister who had not survived.  We realized that we had one child more than we had been told we could have, and she was a major miracle in our lives!

Time is a great healer, you never forget but you learn to be stronger.