A poem written in response to the many interactions I had in the first year following the stillbirth of our firstborn.
To the person who asks me if this is our first,
Don’t panic with fear when I mention it’s not.
We have a daughter, who is in heaven and not on earth.
I carried her, we had her and she will always be our first!
To the person who feels awkward when I mention her name
Strip away the tragedy to see what remains;
She unlocked a real of feelings we never knew we had,
She turned us into parents, we held our creation in our hands.
To the person who said
“We could always try again”
Thank you! We did!
And are expecting this year.
But this isn’t a replacement,
of some ‘thing’ that we lost,
She was my baby,
A life like you and I.
Against so many odds,
Our firstborn fought for her life,
She made it so far and
for that we’re forever proud!
A memory twinned with sadness,
and whilst we couldn’t take her home,
she IS our daughter,
our pride forevermore!
Hannah-Grace,
etched into our beings,
In my heart you will always be,
Even when I’m run off my feet,
You’ve changed the core of me!
I’d rather have loved and lost you
Than never to have known you at all
One day we will meet again,
Then, I will never let you go!
A poem by Cecilia Lubbock, in memory of her daughter Hannah-Grace.
