Marie Gleeson

So writing the book, so Leisha, it will be 11 next week and Maren is nine and a half and that half is very important.

And they are fantastic girls and we had a battle to have them, which is a whole other chapter in the book.

Like life was not exactly kind to us in that regard afterwards.

Yeah.

But fighting to have them was like fighting to save their brother.

But we got a great outcome there, even though we had a lot of sadness and hurt.

We ended up with these two fabulous girls.

And since I left the Navy seven years ago and I ended up in this totally, you know, mad place of speaking on stages about leadership and working with companies and teams.

But actually, the girl saw me speak last year for the first time at a fundraiser in Kinsale for the Pregnancy Loss Research Group in Cork.

And we brought them down to meet the likes of Keelan, who'd last seen them when they were babies.

And about three weeks later, Leisha was on the couch at home.

She's a big reader and she loves historical stuff like Lily at Lizardale.

And she was like, Mammy, will you do something for me?

Will you write a book about a girl from a farm who goes to sea?

And I had been rolling the concept of a book in my head and I had been thinking about it and I was thinking of sharing the story and the power of sharing your story and the impact it has for other people.

But everyone has a little bit of imposter syndrome in them.

And when you're from the country, there's also the notions like who writes a book about themselves, a woman with notions.

So there was that bit, even though I knew I had a story, I knew I was having a powerful impact for people.

There was still a bit of.

And then the day she said that to me, I was like, no, no.