Dawn O’Porter

And so I think the acknowledgement of someone saying to me,

you've been through something horrific and that might affect you was a real relief.

It's really hard to know what the best thing to do for a six and an eight-year-old is when their mum is dying.

Like, really sadly, I've just lost a friend of mine, and she had kids exactly the same age as I was when my mum died.

And they were in America.

Now, that was dealt with with, like, endless therapy, family meetings.

It was all so on the table.

And I was watching it happen, go, God, this is a lot, too.

This is almost...

too much in the other direction.

But I didn't even know she was dying.

I just got told one day she was dead.

And I think there's a space in the middle that is probably right.

I don't know what I would go back and change.

I knew something was happening and I didn't know what it was.

I never got to say goodbye to her and I didn't get to go to her funeral.

I think if I could go back in time, I would have gone to the funeral because I think when anyone dies, closure is the most important part of the whole process, being able to...

you know, just, I don't know, yeah, have a moment where you can see that it's over.

But I don't think at that age, I really ever believed that she'd fully gone.

So you kind of wait for her to come back because you've never really, no one's ever really said she's not coming back.