It's been a while since I've felt compelled to write a blog
entry. But since yesterday evening, when the BBC update came through about the
death of Peaches Geldof, its all I've wanted to do.
She was 25. Twenty five. That’s the just one of the many
tragic parts to this situation. The first of course being that when she was
just 11 years old she lost her own mother, after an already “rudderless and
troubled” (her own words) upbringing. What followed were years of trying to
find her own path and then in 2012 she had her first of two beautiful little
children, with her second following 13 months later and as she described them,
they were her anchor
.
It’s very obvious to those who followed her twitter and her Instagram
that those children, her husband and her two dogs were absolutely her life. Her
pride at her beautiful family, her darling boys, and her husband was so very
clear.
Which is why, as someone who is never affected by the
passing of a celebrity, the death of Peaches has affected me. I’ve been
thinking of little else. Because at 23, I am close to Peaches in age, I have
two young children not much older than hers. I parent the way she does. I
bedshared. I babyweared. I am gentle in my approach. Peaches Geldof is perhaps
the first celebrity I felt I could relate too.
It is breathtakingly terrifying that one day you can be
young, healthy and so happy with your babies and the next you can be gone. It
is not a given that you will see your children grow up, that you will be
blessed with a long life. It’s very easy to be consumed by the fear that you
could die so young and leave behind you so much.
I am sure that over the next few days the papers will
speculate about drugs or suicide, both of which are an insult to her memory,
they will discuss the clothes she wore, how incredibly in touch with the world
of fashion she was, how she was spent a few years of her youth running wild and
free. For me the most important thing to discuss are her husband and her boys,
how are they ever supposed to go on, her babies who spent almost 24 hours a day
next to or in their mothers arms, how are they feeling? How confused and lonely
they must be. How can her husband even imagine his life now?
I think what we can learn from her death is to live each day
with the love she did, to spend our time with our children, our families and
the people we love. Because nothing else matters, the clothes and the shoes,
the nights out and the drinks, that is not what life is about, Peaches spent
her last few years living her life as fully as she could, with her beautiful
boys, her husband, her dogs. That is what we should aim for.
Goodnight Peaches.
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