Living on the Seabed

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Life rarely turns out as we planned. As my favourite ‘fridge magnet puts it: “Life is all about how you handle plan B”. Perhaps the greatest gift we may give our children is the love and emotional strength to weather the storms that will surely come. It was ‘Living on the Seabed’ that reminded me of this.

A true story of a young ‘golden couple’, journalists who fell in love and married, and had a baby. Only they discovered John had Leukaemia, and died at the age of 35. Lindsay was alone, pregnant with a second child, and devastated. She describes the daily struggle to survive, in every way, but especially emotionally. Just as some semblance of normality returns, Lindsay’s older daughter Ellie also developed leukaemia and died after chemotherapy failed to work.

Lindsay describes it as living on the sea-bed, like the little mermaid in Hans Christian Anderson’s tale. She has to return to dry land, however arduous and painful, there is no alternative for her and her little daughter Hope.
After a long battle learning to live again, helped by the necessity of a new career as a single mother, Lindsay begins her life again with her face to the wind, and the warmth of the sun. An inspirational story reminding us all that whatever life may throw at us, there is always a way forward, a hope.