Trigger Warning for those who have experienced child loss.
Early Friday night our home phone rang. When I picked it up it was my brother Andrew apologizing for ruining my big day.
I burst into tears and we both cried on the phone together.
Last Friday had been a day of epic emotions – when the highs and lows of life collide.
The morning started with me scrolling through Facebook at 4am in the morning as I woke up with a stomach full of nerves about being presented with QLD’s first women in plumbing ambassadorship and having to make a speech in front of 350 guests, including the QLD Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk, at a World Plumbing Day breakfast organized by the Master Plumbers’ Association of QLD.
As I tried to focus on something other than my nerves, I saw a message on Facebook from my brother to pray for his wife (my sister-in-law) who was expecting their first child and she had woken up in a lot of pain and a lot of blood.
I immediately got out of bed to call my brother to find out what was going on. The news wasn’t good – it was a matter of life or death for my sister-in-law and their bub.
My nerves were now forgotten and I burst into tears and rang my dad to let him know because Andrew wasn’t able to call family as he needed to be with his wife in hospital .
I have friends and friends of friends who have been through a similar fate and I knew that this news was not good.
My parents arrived at my place at 5:45am, as my mum was going to take Esther to school for me and look after my younger two so I could attend the breakfast with Jacob and my dad.
On the way to the breakfast I was crying and very emotional. Any sign of makeup that I had put on that morning was washed away from my tears.
As soon as we arrived at the breakfast I got into socializing mode, catching up with plumbers dad and I passed a lot of work to when we closed our business back in 2013. It was great seeing some of the female plumbers I met at the breakfast at Parliament House too. The socializing was enough to distract me from what was happening to my brother and sister-in-law – just so I could do what was required of me during the function.
Part of me still couldn’t believe I was receiving recognition for being a plumber and writing a blog. When the Premier mentioned parts of my blog in her speech, I was impressed and immediately thought holy heck… you just never know who will actually read your blog.
Once I was presented my award, I made a speech sharing my plumbing career thus far and how The Plumbette came about. The moment I thanked my dad for being a strong influence in my life, was the exact time his mobile phone vibrated with a message from my mum saying my brother’s baby had been born stillborn at 19 weeks and 1 day – we welcomed and said goodbye to Christopher Robert Jones.
After my speech I sat down to eat breakfast and check my phone to see Andrew had announced the sad news on Facebook.
I was devastated. And I couldn’t believe the timing of something so tragic could coincide with something so joyful.
World Plumbing Day will now be remembered as the date we gained and lost a son, grandson and nephew.
Thank you to all of you who have messaged me, left comments or sent emails sharing their condolences and support that I can pass on to my brother and sister-in-law.
When my brother apologized for ruining my day, I told him he was being ridiculous as none of us can predict what will happen in any moment. We’d like to think we can control our life, and to a certain point we can until the unexpected happens and we’re reminded, we’re not in control at all.
Through the whole ordeal, we’ve clung to our faith. Knowing we will see Christopher in Heaven, but not understanding the timing or why it happened in the first place.
None of us are immune to life’s tragedies, but we can control where we spend our eternity if we believe in Jesus and that God’s plan for our life is beyond the life we have here on this side of eternity.
That’s all my family has clung to through this heartbreak.
What have you clung to when you’ve experienced life’s lows?
I’m linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.
