A deep sense that they will be fine in the world without me.
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 March 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 45 →Resilience, courage and kindness, as compassionate points to follow.
Shortly after my terminal diagnosis, I knew that one of my biggest priorities was to create memories for my children. Chloe and Logan are both so young that it's likely they'll have no direct memories of me. Dylan is the oldest, and at 5 (turns 6 in December), his memories are likely to be fuzzy. Hence the engineering question: What would make for the sharpest, most visceral memory, esp. for a kid who loves animals? Answer: go for a Dolphin Swim!
So it seems to be my responsibility, particularly to my children, also to my wife and friends, is not to be Pollyanna and pretend everything's okay no one would take me seriously if I said that but it's to be as present in their lives now as I can be so that in years to come, they don't feel either guilty or bad at my having been left out of their lives, that they feel still a very strong not a memory of particular actions but a memory of a complete family rather than a broken one. That seems to be something I can do or try to do.
More from Philippa Gregory
View profile →I’m a lucky woman – I was walking in the rain yesterday and was really happy.
I was very sorry to stop at two children – I would have liked to have had a third – and I am very sorry to have got divorced.
A full-time driver/butler/chef.
I’m lazy domestically. I don’t do housework. My mother would have called me a slut.
Trolling, meanness and male violence.
Not for a long time.
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