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cutive Nicola Welsh visit them at their home ston. d: “We learned that were feeling was normal. That it was OK, llowed to be upset, ade a huge difference.” pening up about the nt they discovered how the experience was.
said: “It’s happened to my closest friends but omething you talk rtainly not with blokes.”
uple gave the girls Darcey and Lucy, and ndraising, helped by amily and the ity. on, they’ve raised o help refurbish a room for bereaved parents at St John’s, to train midwives to help them deal with families suffering loss and £5000 for the memorial bench.
Events have included a karaoke night, a marathon in Amsterdam, a family head shave and a Spartan race in Midlothian, which even Bobby, with a young friend, completed. There has also been a £1600 donation from HSBC.
The bench was installed on March 9, the fifth anniversary of the girls’ birth. Nicola from SANDS Lothians, who lost her son Theo when he was 20 days old in 2009, said: “West Lothian is unique in that they have a designated baby cemetery in many of their local cemeteries.
“The council felt this right for the community so families could visit their little one and not have to travel too far.
“I visited the Linlithgow baby cemetery in 2014 and it looked very empty so for Theo’s fifth birthday we fundraised to get the first bench designed and made.
“Since this time we have added five more, including Grant and Sandie’s bench and there are a further six commissioned for June this year, completing the project to have each baby cemetery fitted with one.”
Our girls had not been born alive. It didn’t feel like we could talk about them as children
For the Christies, who now have two more children, Gordy, three, and Carly, two, the hope is that the bench will also be a comfort to other families.
Sandie said: “I’d like to see it as supporting others who are bereaved – whether to them it’s a spot to rest and gather their strength or that it signposts someone to contact SANDS Lothians. No one need go through baby loss alone.”