One More Minute

What would you say if you had One more Minute?

As part of the Child Bereavement UK campaign to raise awareness, they are asking people to say what they would do if they had just one more minute with a loved one who has passed away. 

The campaign, called One More Minute, consists of a series of short films designed to highlight the need for support and to encourage people to start conversations about bereavement.

National charity Child Bereavement UK has developed a campaign featuring bereaved families and celebrity supporters who have experienced the death of a family member. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the needs of bereaved children and families and the benefits of support.

Child Bereavement UK is a national charity which supports families and provides training for professionals when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying, or when a child is facing bereavement.

To find out more information on the campaign and to donate to the charity go to www.childbereavementuk.org/onemoreminute/ 

As I suffered from Child Bereavement from quite a young age I thought I would do this blog post. I hope it helps some people out there as I found it very hard to accept what had happened, and I still struggle now.  

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 The first time I had to go through a loss in my life I was 9. I had just turned 9, 4 months before my nanna passed away. She passed away 7th December 2006. We had only known for a little time that she had terminal cancer, as she was one of these people who never went to the doctors unless it was necessary. We had 1-2 weeks with her before she passed away. I remember the last time I saw her alive like it happened yesterday. For a 9-year-old to see her not only her nanna but someone she looked after, basically lived with and her best friend in the way she was is heartbreaking. But I eventually got to speak to her and say my goodbyes. 

If I got One More Minute with my Nanna May I would probably just say 'I Love You, and thank you for all the wonderful memories and thank you for being the best Nanna anyone would ask for' and sit and give her the biggest cuddle, reminiscing of the 9 years of memories that we had together. She obviously knew I loved her, but telling someone it means a lot more. You never stop thinking about the people you truly love and she is one of them. Especially around this time of year. I remember most of her, wrapping up Christmas presents together, while watching home and away, with quavers and dandelion and burdock pop. 

My fondest memories of being with her have to be when we would go into town every Saturday at around 9/10 am and just buy so much stuff that we absolutely didn't need (I secretly blame her for all my impulse buys now). I'd somehow end up with about £20 every week, but back then I didn't click to that she would secretly put money in my purse, but now I know her tricks. We would go to this small cafe in the shopping centre, that was not the most hygienic, but it was the best. Which is the usual case I think. We would go to this cafe about 3 times in the day, once for breakfast, once for lunch and then a last minute coffee before we did our last bit of shopping. I remember the days like they happened yesterday. 

 ❤️ R.I.P Nanna May ❤️

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I again had to go through a loss at the age of 15. 15th February 2013. I was at the beginning of my GCSE's, which isn't easy at the best of time. I was already struggling with my anxiety and typical school bullies. We were then hit with that my Grandad Tom didn't have long to live. I feel like we had known for a while he had cancer. I just sort of blocked it out as I didn't want to believe what was happening. I was also better at not showing my emotions as I wasn't 9 anymore. I managed to get over to see my grandad in his final days, he was in his own home, surrounded by all his family. His daughter had flown over from America with her 2 daughters. 

I didn't manage to get to my Grandads funeral, I was at the Justin Bieber Believe tour. But he knew I had been looking forward to it for about a year, and all my family had told me to go as that's what he would've wanted. I didn't initially want to go, but I went to know I would be making my Grandad happy. I was only about 2-3 hours away from where his funeral was, and I know that he would've been watching over me. 

If I had One More Minute with my Grandad Tom I would say 'I'll always love you'. I really do wish I said this to him when I said my final goodbye to him. Sometimes, I wish I wasn't so hard faced. I only saw my Grandad a couple of times a year, as he lived over in the lake district. But we always went over in summer for about a week and he made sure we always had fun. If that meant we went to Blackpool for a day at pleasure beach or a day in the village playing in the park. Going back to Grasmere is something I will never get bored of. It's my safe place.

Summers of my childhood are always my favourite as that's when I would see my family over the other side of the country. It all stopped when we got to be teenagers and we didn't really go over as much. I'll always remember the trip over and coming home. His car would always smell of petrol as he was a gardener, and that mixed with travel sickness was not good. I and my brother would always look our for Eddie Stobart trucks and get the numbers for his collection. I would always remember playing cricket in the local park, and my grandad and grandma running around better than we could. And going for dinner in the local pub. All these memories will live on forever. 

❤️R.I.P Grandad Tom ❤️

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Everyone says that it gets easier, and it truly does. But it only gets easier because you have these memories to help you get by. If you miss a person, think if your favourite memory with them, relive it in your mind. It might make you laugh, cry or angry. But just thinking of them will make it seem that little bit better. 

As much as writing this Blog post has made me laugh and cry, I have really enjoyed writing it. It has taken me a while to write but I didn't want it to be any old blog post. Just being able to contribute to the CBUK campaign, makes me happy. 

Tell us what you would say if you had One More Minute by tweeting using the hashtag #OneMoreMinute and tagging @cbukhelp on twitter.

Katie 

xoxo