Just The One Journal

Very exciting moment for me, my writing piece for the wonderful single parent's charity Gingerbread, was published on their blog as part of National Storytelling Week. I am so proud of raising Henry alone as a single parent since he was 10 months old. We have had many highs and lows and I never forget what is important, his health and our happiness. Find the copy below and i'd love to know any comments or thoughts: Emily is a single mother to a nearly three-year-old son, Henry, who has cystic fibrosis. In 2017, they moved from London to Cornwall. Here, she writes about how freeing it has been for her to become a single parent. Becoming a single parent almost two years ago has been a defining moment in my life. This time of year can be very hard for me. It’s when I realised that life in our new flat was no different, the same empty words and behaviours unchanged, and that I was as alone as ever.  I lay in bed frequently in tears from confusion, isolation and pur...

I didn't expect all this emotion. Selling all of Henry's baby things, crib, high chairs, buggy, sleepyhead pod....all these things I had bought with excitement, good memories being made, partners exicted for our new arrival, the hope that we would have lots more children and it all feels desperately sad now. How things have turned so bad in 2 and a half years, the unimagineable hardships I have had to face, the huge life changes, not only divorce but emotional abuse, violence, and my son being diagnosed with a life-limiting illness requiring much support and receiving none. I can't wait to have all this stuff gone. To make peace with the past and move on without the reminders. This comes at a time I also asked henry's father for extra help emotionally and financially, and to have it refused. It is incredibly sad to see someone who you once loved making the same mistakes over and over and to continue to treat me and Henry as non existant. Money ruins people.  But ho...