Two more sons, lost

I read with much regret and sadness this week about the death of former-Olympian Brooke Hanson's son, at only 9 months old, from chronic lung disease as a result of being born 12 weeks prematurely. I don't know the story of how little Jack came to be born so early, but it shows that unexpected, and frightening complications of pregnancy can happen to anyone - no matter how fit and healthy they are. Surely you could not get anyone in better physical shape than an elite sportswoman. Yet, still, somehow, this happened to her, too.

Though I don't know them, I am thinking of these loving and devoted parents this week as they face the very scary and exhausting aftermath of their little boy's death.

This week I am also thinking of my cousin Nicole's best friend, Emma, who has also just lost her baby boy at only 21 weeks gestation in Hobart. Emma has two older children to care for, and is currently in hospital with a very serious infection. Though she does not know me, I am wishing for her, with all my might, a speedy recovery. I know that she will need all the strength she can find to face the days ahead with her family.

I've sent Nicole a bunch of information and support literature that I wish I'd had access to at the time Max died, but it seems like such an insignificant gesture. We are all so helpless in the face of such tragedy. We are all so overcome by the impossibility of it. It's hard to act, to know how to act, when you are still so much in disbelief that the news can be real.

I don't know where the souls of these two babies are. I'd like to think they're with Max - with all the little babies who left us too soon. It's a nice thought. And, despite your beliefs, or lack thereof, in the afterlife, you've got to take some comfort where you can, don't you?