We kept our Georgia at home for 11 days after she died... we needed time to say goodbye
Parents lay down beside tragic daughter’s body
A HEARTBROKEN mum and dad have told how keeping their daughter’s body at home for 11 days before her funeral helped them grieve.
Ilse Fieldsend, 42, and husband James, 41, were devastated when three-year-old Georgia died of a brain aneurism.
And when a hospital mortician asked if they wanted to take Georgia’s body home, they said yes.
Ilse said: “I know some will think what we did was shocking, but to us it made sense. Our daughter’s body belonged with us, not in a morgue. Having her at home helped us to grieve.
“I was a wreck, and often left her room to cry, but I still savoured every moment I had her next to me.”
Georgia, who would have been seven this week, collapsed in her mum’s arms in December 2013 during a holiday in Egypt with her parents and brother Joshua, then two.
She was airlifted to a London hospital where she died. Her parents decided to donate her liver, kidney, heart valves and eyes for transplant, saving four lives and the sight of two young men. Her body was taken to their home in Bramley, Surrey, and lay in her bedroom, which was kept cold, until the funeral.
Ilse and James both spent time lying next to Georgia and also washed her hair together. Party planner Ilse said: “Taking her home gave us more time.
“It felt as if we were protecting Georgia until the very end. It was our way of saying goodbye and a beautiful thing to be able to do.”
Most people are unaware that there is no legal requirement to keep a body in a morgue before the funeral.
Dying Matters is an organisation which tries to help people speak more openly about death. Spokesman Simon Chapman said: “One hundred years ago, 85 per cent of us died at home and bodies would remain in the house with the family until the funeral.
“But after the growth of the NHS and explosion in medical technology, people started to die in hospital and death was no longer part of the community.
“Being able to spend time with a loved one’s physical remains can help.
“To be able to spend time with their body and say goodbye is important.”