Compassion Autumn Winter 2023

15 tcf.org.uk COMPASSION | MEMORY CORNER Our baby Rosin was stillborn at full term. And the Doctor said: ‘The baby didn’t make it. I’m so sorry. You had a little girl but she didn’t make it.’ I could hear me scream. Echoes down the sombre corridor of the hospital labour ward. I was not there, though. I had become someone else. Someone different. An onlooker observing another woman’s pain, for I had been transformed. A floating butterfly fluttering above a new mother, rocking her tiny, Still warm, Stillborn baby. And the Doctor said: ‘We did the best we could, we tried to bring her back. For twenty five minutes we worked on her, but it was no good. In my youthful ignorance, I thought they would put her in the hospital incinerator Obliterate her. Put her with the clinical waste in a yellow, plastic bag - her existence to be erased. And then the Doctor said: ‘Oh no, no dear, she can’t go in there. You have had a baby; procedures must be followed.’ So… there would have to be a funeral. A rite of passage from birth to death to say goodbye to my unknown child. Nine months of waiting. Heavy, empty arms. Doctors in a panic – straightforward job gone wrong. Twenty-one years later, I still wonder about you. My beautiful, lost child. Fiona Shared by Katherine Thomson Remembering my wonderful daughter, Fiona It will be 7 years on September 11th since you were cruelly taken from us just as you were embarking on a new adventure at University. You have a gorgeous niece, Annabel Fiona who will know all about her Auntie Fi, her sense of humour, her dancing, her kindness and how she would have been adored and spoilt by you. I love and miss you everyday, my Petal x mum x Rosin shared by Lisa Small