Today June 30th, 10 years ago, Con, Baba Oisín & I set sail from Rosslare to Fishguard to begin our 10 day adventure! We took turns driving across Wales, stopped for nipples, playground fun and had a wonderful variety of silly songs playing onboard before arriving in Torquay evening time. It was truly magical!
These are moments I will always truly cherish and I Thank God I wasn’t to know that it was in fact, our final adventure together as a family!
We had left home in Cork heading for Rosslare, on the previous afternoon after my wonderful Mom and Dad had called with dinner and to say their goodbyes and wish us a Happy Holiday. Strangely as we were getting ready to leave I returned upstairs to our bedroom and shed tears looking at Baba Oisín’s cot.
Our Beautiful Little Man still slept in our room, and the plan was on our return from Torquay, that he would be graduating into his own room which was all done up and Baba ready. Of course we were going to move in with him too, for the settling in period but I cried at the thought of Precious Little Man growing up and becoming more independent. Silly tears really, as events never allowed us the grace!
Ironically as we were just leaving our yard I got a ‘flash’ that the house might be cold when we’d return from Rosslare the following week so ran back inside and set the heating to come on, on Tuesdays for a few hours. We would be due to arrive back late on the following Tuesday night week, so that way home would be cosy for Baba. It must have been a pinch from my Guardian Angel to do so, as that’s what kept the house aired until I returned in the November when our precious Baba Oisín and beautiful Little Lady were brought home from England.
We had a lovely sailing from Rosslare, and spent the ferry trip with my fab cousin Eileen and her lovely family. We hadn’t known they’d be on the ferry so it was really a chance meeting and one all of us treasure now years on.
We had a really special time in Torquay, doing the normal family stuff, visits to the zoo, the circus, the beach, the playground, the slide, the slide and more slides, Jeepers Baba Oisín so loved the slide! In the midst of our trip we got to spend time with my cousin Séan and his family, which was lovely.
Of course we had the laughs at the making and breaking of sandcastles at the beach and on the Friday morning of July 6th, our magical trip to the swimming pool.
Thank God the six days we had together are as vivid today almost as when the precious moments were created. They still bring many smiles as I look through our photos and relive our laughs. Understandably tears follow quickly, wishing the moments back and of course as one does, ponder on the what if’s?
Would Baba Oisín and Little Lady have been bestest buddies? Or would we have had more darlings like ‘our plan’? What would they be like now? First Holy Communion for Baba Oisín should have been done and Little Lady would have had a different type of day owing to Covid, yet I’m sure both their big days would have been truly magical ….
Millions of what if’s and maybe’s! And dreams not ever lived!
Reality is for me, grief will always be a part of who I am. The fact that our tragedy happened 10 years ago, certainly doesn’t make it any easier. They say ‘Time is a healer’ and I suppose for me personally I’ve sadly got more used to living physically without my beauties.
But I do question the saying! Because while I honestly cherish every single moment we had together, the extent to which I miss them and living life without them isn’t something that’s ever going to change. Con, Baba Oisín and Little Lady will always be a major part of who I am as it should be!
I have honestly been Blessed with many good things too since July 2012 thank God. I continue to have a wonderful and amazingly supportive family and friends, be it with my study, my campaign or rowing in with our Twomey Family Remorial. But I would like for anyone who reads this to understand that if you’ve someone dear to you, who has lost a partner, a child, or a best friend, that while their life as you see it might be continuing, their life is very changed!
Needless to mention for me because of Con, Baba Oisín and Little Lady I will continue to rabbit on about suicide awareness training for Police Officers, Garda training etc and our Twomey Family Remorial flag will continue to fly on the 2nd weekend of every June because Life is Truly Precious and we really have in my opinion, to try to Enjoy Every Moment!
Where There Is Life There Is Hope 