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‘Where’s Granny? She’s up in the sky. Well if I grow a pair of wings, can I fly up to see her?’
Read time: 10 mins
Jennie McGinn lost her mother Annie in October 2020. From an unusually large, and unusually female family, she writes about losing the centre of their family orbit and how she has managed parenting a toddler and a small baby while wanting to spend time completely submerged in her grief.
My mother’s illness is intrinsically linked to my own ascent into motherhood. My first child – Luke – was the first grandchild and I had a beautiful first year; learning to become a mother, becoming closer to my own mother and witnessing the wonderful relationship that is grandparent and grandchild. A month before Luke turned one, we found out that my mother had breast cancer. A month after he turned one, we found out it...