Gran ‘blessed’ after both of her daughters have twins in lockdown
THE grandmother of two newborn sets of twins is counting the days until lockdown ends so she can finally hold her four grandchildren.
Marie Lindsay, principal of St Mary’s College in Londonderry, is currently shielding as she recovers from cancer treatment.
While her recovery is going well, it means she has not been able to meet Sadie and Hugo, born to her daughter Kate and husband Ben Montgomery in Altnagelvin Hospital on April 3.
Nor has she been able to meet Cliona and John, born on Monday to her other daughter, Sarah and her husband Tom Grant in Dundonald Hospital.
For now, Marie and her husband Collie are staying in touch with the new arrivals and their parents through video calls while patiently counting down the days when they can all be together again.
“We are so blessed. I have come through chemotherapy treatment so well and I am looking forward now to getting on with some ‘grannying’,” the proud and very excited new granny said.
“The hardest thing for me is not so much missing out on cuddles.
“I will eventually be able to cuddle them. It is that feeling of your child having a child and you are not able to help your child — that is what I am finding tough.
“I would love to be able to go and help. I think of these new mummies and daddies with these twins all needing an extra pair of hands and those hands should be mine.”
Mrs Lindsay said she feels blessed that in the middle of this pandemic, she has so much to be thankful for.
“When you consider all the people who have died from Covid and how their loved ones were not able to be with them, we feel so thankful for all that we have,” she said.
“My cancer treatment went really well and the staff at the hospital who looked after me were incredible. It was the same for Kate and Sarah and the babies — they had the best of care and attention, so we have so much to be grateful for which is why I am not going to complain about missing out on the cuddles because I know they will come.
“We knew from September that Kate was having twins but when Sarah went for her first scan, she was asked, ‘How do you feel about having twins?’
“Sarah laughed and said, ‘My sister is having twins’, and the person doing the scan said, ‘I think you are too’ — so we are just wondering where all these twins came from.”
For now both Kate and Sarah are having to cope with being first time mums to twins without the on hands-on guidance of the mother beside them.
Kate said: “Hugo had some complications after he was born and spent three weeks in the Royal so I really missed not having mum beside me then. But we are lucky we live in a digital world so we were able to have constant contact.
“In a way though because these are our first children, we didn’t know any different so as my mother would say we just got on with it.
“I think because I relied so much on Ben, as I couldn’t have mum with me, it made us stronger and he has been very hands on because there was no other choice.”
Sarah added: “It took a long time to get used to the idea that I was having twins, especially after finding out Kate was having twins, but it is lovely that they is just seven weeks difference between them.
“Mum had five of us so there’s not much she doesn’t know about babies but at least she is at the other end of the telephone but ready with good advice and guidance.
“I had thought she would have been able to be here so I could at least get a couple of hours sleep in between feeds though.”
Becoming a granny to four darling bundles of joy in a matter of weeks isn’t the end of the excitement within the Lindsay family — Marie and Collie’s other three children are all in the midst of wedding plans.
Marie continued: “Our son Lee and his fiancee Nikki were due to get married in Dublin this August but that has been deferred now until March because of the coronavirus.
“Our youngest daughter Fionnuala and her fiance Ross will be getting married in December if all goes according to plan, and our other son Denis and his fiancee Maria are planning to get married next April.
“So we have plenty of family gatherings to look forward to between all these christenings and weddings.”