Marie Foreman Celebrant

03/03/2025

So proud of my amazing daughter.

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23/12/2024

So proud of my beautiful daughter and grateful for the support from WAY Widowed And Young. We are really looking forward to the lights at Wimpole Hall on New Year’s Eve.

"I think my thoughts after having done the first Christmas as a young widowed mum are to make new traditions. I found it hard trying to replicate the same things we did with Paul and it made the loss more profound." WAY Member Sophie
Read more: https://www.widowedandyoung.org.uk/news/sophies-first-year-as-a-young-widowed-mum-reflecting-on-loss-love-and-new-traditions

17/11/2024

Five years today.
Saying goodbye to my amazing brother was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and it hurts as much today as it did then. He had so much life left to live, and there’s so much I wish I could have said to him. He really was the best brother anyone could wish for, and I will miss him until the end of my days.
The writer Jay Shetty once shared a thought about grief that truly resonates: ‘Grief is like a stone you carry in your pocket. At first, the stone feels heavy, and you are always aware of its weight. But as time goes on, you grow stronger. The stone doesn’t go away, and it doesn’t get smaller, but as you become stronger and more resilient, it feels lighter to carry. The truth is, we never truly ‘move on’ or ‘get over’ grief – it just becomes a part of us. It stays, but it changes as we do, becoming a quieter presence in our lives, reminding us of the love we feel.’
I carry my stone for Sean every day. Some days it feels lighter, other days heavier, but it’s always there – a reminder of how much he meant to me and how much he is missed. I don’t think there’s a day gone by when I haven’t thought about ringing him or sharing something with him. But through it all, I know he wouldn’t want us to be consumed by grief. He would want us to live fully and love fiercely. His memory gives me the strength to do just that – to embrace life, to find joy, and to honour him by living as he would have: with passion, kindness, and an open heart.
If you’ve lost someone, know you’re not alone. Grief is just love with nowhere to go, and that love remains as strong as ever. Let’s carry our stones together and keep living for them. ❤️

03/08/2024

When Sophie’s husband Paul died in 2023, she was 17 weeks pregnant. Her Bereavement Support Payments are due to stop just after her baby turns one. Here is Sophie’s story…

27/07/2024

So proud of my beautiful girl Sophie Ransom. Campaigning on behalf of bereaved parents on BBC Radio 4. Scroll through to 12:20.

Listen live to BBC Radio 4 on BBC Sounds

25/07/2024

If anyone is in a letter-writing mood, would you please consider writing to your MP in support of the WAY campaign to reinstate the bereavement payments for parents who lose a spouse. They used to get it until the child was 18 and it was reduced to 18 months.

This is my daughter’s story - she will be on Radio 4 on Saturday.

For those of you who haven’t heard of WAY, they are Widowed and Young - an amazing charity who have been an enormous help.

Thank you xx

When Sophie’s husband Paul died in 2023, she was 17 weeks pregnant. Her Bereavement Support Payments are due to stop just after her baby turns one. Here is Sophie’s story…

16/06/2024

Today is difficult for many people. Thinking of all those without their father; all those who are supporting them and for those who just need a special thought xx

19/05/2024

https://www.widowedandyoung.org.uk/get-support/join-way

12/05/2024

This is so beautiful 😍

IF YOU ARE A WOMAN WITHOUT HER MOTHER

There will never be a day you don’t miss her.
Never a day, where you don’t wish you could hear her voice or ask for her advice just one more time.
There will never be a moment that you don’t regret all the times you screened her call, or missed a visit, simply because life was just too busy.
And now you realise busy is fake, it isn’t real.
She was real and she is gone.
And you are alone.
And the feeling of abandonment and loneliness is huge. Mind-blowing, no matter how loved or surrounded by family you may be.
None of it is her.
When the woman who brought you into this world is no longer here, it is a lonely place.
And you are now she.
You are now the one expected to guide, to discipline, to love, to handle everything, for everyone. And that is a shock.
But you got this.
Because she taught you well.
She made you right and she made you strong and she filled you with enough love to share around, even after she was gone.
So go on.
And make her proud.
And remember, look out for the little girl who still lives inside you somewhere, she misses her Mama very much.
Be kind.

Donna Ashworth
From ‘Loss: poems to better weather grief’
UK: https://amzn.eu/d/fwIp4VX
US: https://a.co/d/cQC9Wet

Art by Claudia Tremblay ♥️

08/04/2024

Wise and beautiful words written by my daughter, Sophie Ransom. She lost her husband last year while she was pregnant.

I’m so proud of her 💕

Some thoughts I shared in the WAY (widowed and young) group today. May be useful for anyone else currently going through any experience of grief:

If you’re sat now wondering if you’ll ever not feel like this, like you can’t go on, everything feels heavy and hard - I promise, it does get better.
Right now you feel so tired you can barely find the strength to get your head off the pillow but somehow every time you try to sleep it’s like you’re instantly back to the second your life changed.
You want to be alone but being on your own and the silence that brings is deafening.
You don’t want to be near your family or friends but the fear of not being near them is overwhelming. The all consuming fear that something would happen to them. The worst thing imaginable has already happened so what if this is the start of a catastrophic chain of events where everybody you love will get hurt or die.
You will be wondering if you will ever want to see anyone again, if you are ever going to be able to go to the supermarket again without being scared to see someone you know, or see something you no longer need to buy because your person is gone.
You will be wondering if you’ll ever make it through 24 hours without sobbing so hard your eyes swell and burn.
You will be wondering if you’ll ever not be so angry that you scream into your pillow until your voice hurts.

I don’t think you can ever be who you were before but you can be ok again. I don’t know when or how it happens. I wish I knew what to tell you to do to make it happen sooner, to make you suffer for even one hour less but I can’t.
But, one day, you’ll go to bed and think to yourself ‘I didn’t cry today’ or ‘I spent time with my best friend today and enjoyed it’ or ‘ I laughed today and I didn’t feel guilty’
The first few weeks and months your waves of grief are all consuming. It is every single waking minute of every day.
Suddenly, out of no where it won’t be every day. Good days are still going to be tinged with sadness, how can it not be when someone so vitally important to you isn’t there anymore?
But somehow you learn to live your life with your grief co existing and running along side you, not running your life.
One day it will no longer consume you and stop you from living. You’ll still feel sad sometimes, you’ll miss your person, but when those feelings come you will still be able to continue your day. You might even do it with a smile as you remember them.
You will want to start living your life to the fullest, for them, because they don’t get that chance anymore. You know how precious life is now and how lucky you are to still be here.

You are not alone, everyone here has felt what you’re feeling. It’s s**t right now. The worst thing that will ever happen to you. But I promise whether it be in 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years time you will wake up one morning and realise how far you have come and I hope when that happens you are so proud of yourself 🤍

28/03/2024

A lovely week - I welcomed baby Poppy with a naming ceremony on Sunday and said goodbye to a lovely man yesterday and an incredible lady today. What a privilege and an honour it is to do this job!

23/11/2023