A Mother's Speech

This is the speech I made at Hannah's funeral.

When I sit & look back over the 2 short months of Hannah’s life my mind doesn’t immediately go to the hard times, the pain & the suffering. It goes to the good times, the times when she smiled, when I held her, when I got to see her personality & when she opened her big brown eyes & looked at me with recognition. My biggest wish today is that you too could have had the chance to meet her & get to know her. Today I would like to tell you about my precious little girl.

She had such big brown eyes & such long fingers & feet.

She loved grasping hold of my finger & having her head stroked. There were many times when she was upset & the only way to settle her was to put my finger in her hand, my other hand on her head & sing to her. She loved music & being sung to as well.

She was not all that fussed on being washed, but absolutely LOVED when I massaged the moisturizing cream into her legs & feet afterwards. She would stop crying & completely relax. The other time she would completely relax was in my arms. The first time I held her she was all upset while the were getting her ready & moving her, then as soon as they put her in my arms she looked up at me, gave a contented sigh & snuggled into my chest. The nurses were always commenting on how Hannah’s vital signs would stabilize when she was with me.

Hannah was a very determined little girl. She had her own plan & schedule & did not like being rushed. As long as you took things quietly & slowly things were usually fine. Because Hannah was not able to take anything orally she would regularly have to have her mouth cleaned with a wet swab to keep it fresh & moist. This was something that Hannah DID NOT like. She would pull her mouth tightly shut in a very determined manner & it took quite a bit of coaxing to get her to open it again. One other thing she hated was having a dirty nappy. It didn’t matter if it was only a tiny little bit, she would cry until you changed it.

Hannah was a special little girl & our lives will never be the same. Our prayer from the very start of this journey was that God would use her life to bring glory to Him & we believe He has done that. While it's hard to understand why she had to go after fighting so long & hard, & seeing God answer so many of our prayers, we believe there is a purpose. May we never forget the lessons we have learnt.