Thank You

As the year draws to an end, I know that I have only really managed to get through it with the help of a lovely person called Triff (short for Triffid and I’m not making that up, really!) who was ‘assigned’ to me when I struggled with life and also with the friendship of my new friend Cally. I have known Cally for just over a year and in that time she has been one of the loveliest friends. Depression is a terrible thing: before I had it I might probably have dismissed it as something that is all in the mind. But when I found myself sobbing five, six or seven times a day, really sobbing, while my children clung to me, not understanding, fearful of what was happening to me, when I thought about driving my car into a tree, hoping that I might end up in hospital so that I wouldn’t have to look after my babies a minute longer, when I actually had to wonder if I might be depressed but not knowing that I was off the scale of the postpartum depression register, I know that these things were not just in my mind. The physical and emotional toll at that time was more than I could deal with and the depression manifested itself physically and emotionally – my cry for help. Triff and Cally were my knights in shining armour. If they had not helped me and shown me true and selfless friendship I really don’t know if I would be here today to say how much I love my beautiful family and my friends.