Triplets overcome odds, prepare to start senior school
IT’S a moment Toowoomba mum Natalie Lombard thought she would never see.
On Thursday night Ms Lombard’s triplets Lachlan, Matilda and Hayley took their final steps as primary school students at the Mary MacKillop Catholic College junior graduation.
“It’s so exciting to see them graduate when I thought they might not have been here,” Ms Lombard said.
As the students crossed the stage, Ms Lombard couldn’t help thinking of her late daughter Faith, a quadruplet sister to her three children.
The quadruplets were born 15 weeks premature, little Faith’s health issues too great for her to survive.
“The babies had their struggles; they spent the first three months of their lives in hospital. Unfortunately Faith passed after two days,” Ms Lombard said.
“It was terrific to see the three of them graduate, and I had to keep my mind on that, however, inside me I kept thinking ‘it should have been four’.”
Ms Lombard said was proud of her children, the triplets having grown in leaps and bounds since their Prep year.
“It’s amazing to see how their individual characteristics have come out and they are not so shy any more,” she said.
The triplets are “excited and a little bit nervous” to start the Mary MacKillop College’s senior campus next year.