Things I want My Daughters To Know

How this book has helped me heal

This past summer I picked this book up at the bookstore. I really didn't know what it was about just saw it and thought it might be a good read. I was spending many hours at the hospital with my Mom and took it with me to pass the time. I was only able to start the first few pages before my mom who was diagnosed with cancer almost 8 years ago, said goodbye. We let her spirit free in a country cemetery on one of the hottest days of the year. After my Mom's passing I set the book down and didn't feel like reading. A few months later I started reading it again and was touched by so many of the parallels between my Mom's life and that of Barbra's. I cried a lot as I read this book taking the time to honor my Mom and her legacy that she left. It made me realize how important my Mother really was and how even though she is gone I can still continue. I want to thank Elizabeth for this novel as it was a small part of my healing. To my Mom and everything she has done for me and for so many other people in her life.
Thank you Elizabeth you are a wonderful writer and an inspiration.

Mumma,

2000 characters is not enough to write this, my words are not justifiable enough to really have you all know & I don't even know where to start..

My mum, my angel, my rock, my saviour, my guidance, my shoulder, my only love, my only trust and my only one.Gone.

I am not saying there are not another thousand stories of tears & sorrow that are any lesser, but.. 21yrs old, 18 days before my 22nd, my best friend left the world - 11.24pm, on a Tuesday, 2nd of September 2008, with all of us by her side.

I still cry of course, stil hurt, still get angry still wish & hope, for me, for her, for what was 'her hero' & for the rest of the world-because we all lost an amazing, clever, beautiful, majestic, loving, stong & caring young angel & that angel lost the chance to keep that life going.

My 'mumma' got diagnosed 4 yrs before she died, her mother & sister both suffered the consequences of Cancer in all it's trials & tribulations. My Grandma - 2000, my Aunt - 2007 (RIP always). Not a year after she attended her own sister's funeral, did her world come to an end... & still I really don't understand any of it.

Mum's old work place have a bench in memory of her, by the pond she used to sit at on her breaks.. which I now sit on when the time is right & the book is good.. like this one was for me.

Do I tell you about her? About her struggle? About us? About me now? About life now? ...there is so much to tell.

She'd call me her chooky egg, but I was a 'roaster' if I was ill & needed wrapping up with a tea, her baby girl, her Juice, nothing changed, no matter how old I got, and I loved that.. always her baby.

I hate that I can't be with her, we can't be with her, but mostly that she can't be happy here with us anymore.

Nothing will ever be the same.Mumma, I love you always x

regrets

i always have had such a difficult relationship with my mum and sisters..the black sheep,that was me..a life time of regrets now for all four of us, mum has cancer and is scared. My sisters are scared. Im scared.the distance between us all is screaming at me! I have two beautiful girls myself and we are a team..am bringing them up alone so we a strong unit.But what a black hole of regrets for a mother / daughter relationship Ive never had..wish it could have been like Barbaras and her girls..like mine and my girls..I will care for my mum through this crappy cancer..but how the hell can we fit in 40 years of good times we never had????

what words cant say

A dear friend once told me on her wedding day - "you always have the right words to say, you always know what to write to tell someone how you are feeling". Sadly when another friend of mine told me her baby daughter had been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia - my luck with words failed me. I struggled to find the right words she so needed to hear, how would she know that I was thinking of her and hoping and praying for her and her beautiful daughter to be OK if I couldnt find the right words. And then in the back of this book, I found this website. So, Nic, if you are reading this,I want you to know, I cant find the right words, but Im still caring and praying very hard for the miracle you so need.

My baby

I lost my baby, my little girl. She was only in my womb for 8 weeks, but she was the most precious thing i`ll ever have.

I miss her everyday that passes.

I`ll never get to meet my baby girl, and that hurts more than anyone could ever know.

I love you Tegan.xxx

The Tooth Fairy

When I was about 7 I wrote a questionnaire for the tooth fairy...just your normal every day questions, totally practical. Do you know Santa, are you made out of glitter etc.

I didnt tell my mum because I wanted it to be a surprise when she saw my completed questionnaire. left it under my pillow with my tooth.

Excitedly the next day i found my tooth and my incomplete questionnaire. I cried to my mum because i thought the tooth fairy didnt like me. My mum said she's probably just very busy and told me to put my tooth under my pillow again. The next morning my tooth was gone, replaced by a 20p and a pressed daffodil leaf and written in tiny writing it said 'To Sarah im sorry i couldnt get your tooth yesterday i was very busy, love from the tooth fairy. I was sooo happy, i kept it in my favourite cinderella book for years and years.

I opened it one day and the flower had gone, maybe fallen out when we'd moved or disintegrated i dont know, maybe another little sarah needed it more than me somewhere.

Needless to say I love my mum, aside from my partner she is my best friend. I have a little girl now, Rosie and my mum is there for me every single time i ring her in a panic saying Rosies just coughed!!

I love you mummy, i feel special that you are the tooth fairy. Itl be our little secret.