Pain of losing my feisty sister, Aisling Golden remembers
My name is Aisling Golden, aged twenty- four and CF ( Cystic Fibrosis) has been a huge part of my life since 1994 when my younger sister was born and diagnosed with the disease. I lost my beautiful, fun- loving, bright, fiery, stubborn little sister last February 24th 2016 to Cystic Fibrosis.
As I write this over a year after her passing I am still lost for words as to why this had to happen, just like I was the night she said her last words to me. As a family in 1994 we had no idea what Cystic Fibrosis was, what impact it would have on Gráinne or us. Nobody in our family had CF. This was a completely foreign subject, but CF wasn’t long teaching us exactly how unforgiving and cruel it can be.
As Gg grew up, throughout her childhood we all realised how much her condition was deteriorating but as a CF family, this was our ‘ normal’ and we just got on with it. Gráinne was a very bright and clever girl who as a teenager and young adult researched endlessly about cystic fibrosis. No matter how traumatising each obstacle was for her she always got herself over the hurdle and on to the next.
Gráinne being her stubborn little self always tried to live her life saying “I have CF but CF does not have me!”
By the age of 18, Gráinne was spending, like most other Cfer’s her age, at least 9 months of the year in an acute, double- doored private hospital room with not even a window to open. Now anyone that knew my sister knows exactly how outspoken she was, she never had the ‘ time’ to ‘ sugar- coat’ anything. She would always inform her friends via Facebook that she was “going to jail” for a little while so if they needed to contact her they would know where she was - in hospital! CF is a constant 24/ 7 battle. It almost feels like you are pushing against a current to just get through each day. You never know from one hour to the next what is going to happen and when things drastically change to ‘ end of life care’ that’s a whole new ball game in CF. CONTINUED ON PAGE 9