Fiona’s story

 
 

Fiona & Natalie

Fiona speaks about her sister’s sudden death and the five things that helped her cope.


 

I am sure many of you can understand this when I say that my sister wasn’t just my sister, she was my best friend.

And as the middle child, she seemed to be the backbone of the family, the ‘go-between,’ the mischievous 2nd born and the supportive older sibling.

She was always at the top of my ‘recently called’ list.

The first person I would phone just to have some company.

She was my driving instructor, my fake ID, my travel partner.

She stole my clothes, I stole hers.

We talked about life and how our future husbands had no choice but to be best friends.

But that future never happened.

 
 

“On 2nd December 2011, Natalie was at Greg James’ feet up Friday at Radio 1, when she suffered a brain haemorrhage, completely out of nowhere. She was 26.”

 
 

“Natalie is in intensive care.”

That one phone call marked a schism between my childhood and adulthood; any naïve innocence I held about life suddenly ripped out from underneath me.

 
 
 

“After 5 excruciating days in hospital, Natalie passed away. And as she did, so did a version of myself. Because death never just affects one person.”

 
 
 

Suddenly everything in life felt different. I wasn’t just trying to deal with the gaping void Natalie left in my life, but also trying to navigate the new perspective on life that I now held; nothing looked the same, what was once important now wasn’t. In a single moment, everything about life changed, I changed. I was 21, but suddenly I felt so different to all my friends, whilst they were living carefree lives, my life felt anything but.

In the first few years after her death, I dealt with my grief in a very traditionally British way, with utter stoicism, to just carry on. I never had any therapy in the first few years, I was barely able to speak to anyone about her death. Everything hurt; watching others move on with their lives with ease, seeing sisters together, watching happy families at Christmas, thinking ahead to life events that she won’t be at.

And whilst the grief felt heavy, a narrative of guilt made me not want to escape; “Why should I be happy? Why should I be able to move on with my life when Natalie couldn’t?”

And that blend of emotions is not only confusing, but heavy.

Initially keeping my head down allowed me to carry on, to finish university, to navigate those first few years, but the bottling up of grief soon caught up with me, limiting me in different aspects of my life, particularly relationships.

 
 

“In time I learnt that as difficult as facing the pain of losing a sibling is, it is vital to help you to move forward, to deal with the pain so that you can put down the weight; because the longer you carry that weight, the heavier it gets.”

 
 

So, let me share with you five things that helped me deal with the death of my sister which I hope can help you too. (Click the plus to expand the text)

 

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