17 moments in 17 years of Grace....

 In just a few hours time, my beautiful baby girl turns 17, so what else could I blog but this; my favourite moments of her life.

#17yearsofGraceBeauchamp

1. Becoming Grace’s mum.  To quote Coldplay, “I was scared, tired and underprepared.” but she was beautiful and, daunted though I was, I fell in love instantly. 

2. Her first word, as I handed her over to Sam for a weekend visit.  “Mummy.”  #GirlPower

3. Covering my laptop in Sudafed.  I had an Abstract due for submission that evening.  No laptop, no submission.  Which was just as well since I hadn’t got as far a starting the abstract in the first place! 😏

4. Disney 2009 - Early Co-parenting at its best.  Grace loved being at Disney so much that it neatly made my heart burst.  Instead Sam and I got blitzed in our hotel room, once she fell sleep cuddling Snow White, and both cried about how amazing the whole thing had been.

5. When she won the egg and spoon race in year 3.

6.  Making a Barbie hospital where all the Barbies were Consultants and all the Ken dolls were Nurses.

7. Receiving a letter from Buckingham Palace when she wrote to the Queen all about how much she admired Kate Middleton for making such an excellent marriage choice prior to the Royal wedding.

8. When she sent me a Valentines card from Sam. That she’d written herself.

9. Helping me and supporting me when her grandfather died.  She was no more than a child but was so supportive of me. 

10. Seeing 1D in concert with her.

11. Seeing her fight her way back after our accident.

12. Our Christmas with Simba and J.

13. Being so brave when she visited me after my cancer op.  Not all kids would be there to look after a parent as they vomited. 

14. When she sponsored a Pygmy goat for Charlie at London Zoo and named her Duffy, because “goats are cuddly”.

15. When she crocheted hearts during the pandemic to bring end of life patients closer to their loved ones.

16. Pulling a paramedic.  Nothing like having a kid who is a chip off the old block.

17. Attempting a tracheotomy. Using youtube.  Massive error, but totally befitting my brave, beautiful, over confident girl. 

Happy 17th Birthday, Grace x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In The Departure Lounge (quite literally) - a few notes to those back home

Well, it appears that the jungle drums of Holby have been a banging, and my desired secret departure has not been as secret as I hoped.  I’m sorry for just slipping away like I did, but I hate goodbyes and couldn’t face a whole series of them.  It would have been far too hard.  For those of you who are feeling cheated at the lack of goodbye drinks, I’ve left £200 behind the bar at the Hope & Anchor.  Party hard, but safely, and don’t wind up in the ED with drunken war wounds.  I’ve heard the staff hate that.  For anyone who really wants to say goodbye, Jacob has suggested via WhatsApp that we could do something on Zoom, so, give me a few days to get my head together, and get over the jetlag and we’ll try and arrange a mutually convenient time across two continents and several time zones. So, yes, I’m off to America.  Lots of reasons for that, some of which you can probably guess, but others cut a lot deeper and I’m holding them close to my chest. ...
Read more

Underneath the Scrubs - Sahira Shah

Image
Whilst I’m working on the upcoming piece that will be humiliation by bad 90s fashion choices, here’s another of my Underneath the Scrubs interviews.  This time delving into the life of Sahira Shah. Name: Sahira Shah Job Title: Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery/Clinical Lead of Darwin Ward.  Favourite Book: The Help by Katherine Stockett or Open Hearts by Kate Bull  Favourite Cocktail: Mojitos (obviously!) Favourite Person: Can I have two? My boys - my sons; Abs and Indy. Favourite Junk Food: Biriyani Curry or Moroccan churros and chocolate sauce Favourite Song: Pretty much anything from the 80's pop/dance era for me. Although I love a bit of ABBA and Whitney too! Favourite Movie: Pretty Woman (such a classic!) Favourite TV Show: Desperate Housewives  Number 1 on my speed dial: @SardonicBlake (home bestie) or Nurse Donna Jackson (work bestie)  Colour of my Favourite Pyjamas: My dark purple silk pyjamas (my boys got for me for Mother's Day a couple of years ago!)...
Read more

As the dust settles...

I suppose I owe one or two people beyond Grace an explanation, although this is going to be monumentally hard to do.  When you’ve lived with a secret as long as I’ve lived with this one, the idea of speaking out on the subject seems impossible.  I remember reading Meghan Markle’s NYT article last year, and feeling such incredible admiration for her, for being able to write so publicly about something I could barely even acknowledge in my own head.  I never thought I’d be sitting down to do the same, so I apologise if this is incoherent and rambling and without much of a point. I just need to get it out there, once and for all. So, 29 years ago, I was a final year medical student with the world at my feet.  I was feeling confident about finals, clinical placements were going well, and I had an amazing boyfriend as part of the package.  He was older than me, kept me grounded, and as he was conveniently a doctor, he was there to help and support me professionally a...
Read more