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4 : A Dad in Grief : The Nickname & the Sign
A
person that has shown themselves to be a real true friend gave Mia a nickname.
Now, I don't normally associate babies with having nicknames but this one fits
perfectly, and I'll explain why, partly in this blog, but the theme will
continue in future blogs.
Mia
was due on Saturday 2nd June. I remember the weekend vividly, it was the Queens
Diamond Jubilee Weekend and it did nothing but rain for the whole time. I
caught bits of the river pageant that was held on the Thames on the Sunday and
remember thinking how miserable it looked. So it was with great surprise that
when my wife went into labour on the Monday morning that the sun appeared to be
shining on a dry day! Amazingly, the sunny dry weather lasted until about 4pm
the following day, which was about an hour after we said goodbye to Mia. Cue
the rain, cue the nickname, Little Miss Sunshine.
We
returned home the day after Mia left us. We had the opportunity to spend some
more time with her before we left the hospital, to tell her how we felt. She
looked absolutely perfect lying there in the Moses Basket, she looked like she
was sleeping, like she would open her eyes at any minute and start to cry. She
never did. Unlike the many families that left the hospital that afternoon with
their precious new additions, we left with a small white memory box.
It
was on the drive home that we seen something that we will always consider a sign.
Coming onto the M62 at the rocket, there, right in front of us was the most
vivid rainbow I've ever seen. My wife and I looked at each other, held hands as
I drove, cried, but knew that it was a message from our princess. She was
looking over us on our drive home. The rainbow now holds a significant meaning
to us, so much so that it holds pride of place on Mia's headstone. It may be
ironic, it may be coincidence, it may just be that I notice them more now, but
since that moment on the M62 I've never seen so many rainbows. I like to think
of it not as irony though, I like to think that it's Mia, checking up on me,
making sure I'm ok as the rainbows always seem to appear when I'm feeling down.
She has a habit of showing herself when I need her the most, she can obviously
see her Daddy hurting. I feel so happy when I see a rainbow now, but I can't
look at one with a dry eye.
This is a beautiful tribute to your little girl.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to out into words what Mia means to me. She touched my heart long before she was born, and felt just a fraction of the excitement shared between the 3 of you. I can honestly say there's not a day goes by I don't think about her, & I have to say, the days I see her everywhere are the brightest. She lights up the sky at night with her star, and the days she brings sunshine - everything seems so much prettier, brighter & I feel my mood lift as I thank her for her gift of a Mia Rose Day, Little Miss Sunshine Forever.
ReplyDeleteI think rainbows are a sign, before I had children I had a dog, Bruno, he was like a baby to me. We always said that when he died he would go over the rainbow bridge. Two days before I gave birth to our first child we had to put Bruno to sleep. I know he was only a dog but I was heartbroken.
ReplyDeleteAnyway on the way home from hospital as we turned onto our road there was a rainbow across our house, I said that was a sign to say he was ok & he was indeed over the rainbow bridge.
RIP baby girl Mia Rose xxx