As we say goodbye to 2024, we welcome in 2025.
Last year was certainly a challenge for many, including myself and my family, but we seem to have managed to have reached the end of the year.
For me personally the last six weeks have been a challenge of a very different sort.
I am not that great at keeping secrets but I had an enormous secret I had to hold, and that was the fact that I had been awarded an MBE!
There was no mistaking that the envelope held something quite important, stamped with, URGENT-PERSONAL and CABINET OFFICE.
It isn’t often I am speechless but when I opened it and read the content I was lost for words.
I have done nothing to warrant this honour.
All I did was to set up BGSG, a group to help me as well as others, at a time when there was so much darkness, so many unanswered questions.
I have been saying all day today, that all I do is facilitate, it is the grandparents who turn up to zoom and in person meetings who create the magic. They come with open hearts and no judgement and give so much love and care to others who are hurting just as much as they are, they are the ones who deserve the honour.
To read the wonderful posts and comments has been quite overwhelming, and many a tear has been shed today.
My biggest regret is that I was not able to share it with my eldest granddaughter, who made a decision to not be part of our family since last January, after all it was because of her that BGSG was born.
We clearly were not the family she was looking for, and that saddens me beyond words.
The most moving thing today has been the joy that others appear to have experienced with this honour, to hear the excitement in their voices and in their written words has been very humbling.
So as 2025 is about to burst forth,thank you to everyone for your kind words and let’s move along together, supporting one another and continue to raise awareness of the living bereavement that is estrangement.
I wish each and every one of you a Happy, Healthy New Year.
