I cant quite believe as I sit here in the early hours of the morning that one whole year has passed by since the death of our sweet angel Heni. I am sitting, in perhaps what could be called the "portal to heaven"... the exact same place that we found her lying peacefully asleep... taken home to rest from her mortal sojourn.
The room has changed. Most of her "things" are lovingly packed away in her memory chest....there is no bed.... and no Her.
The room has moved on... re-purposed in to my new craft room.... but as I sit on the sofa (where she would have been sleeping in her bed) and as I cast my eyes around, I can still see Heni. The bright multi coloured rainbow pompom banner still hangs from the window. Her photos cover the walls in family portraits. Her yearly milestone pictures hang just behind me on the wall. Her purple fluffy blanket lays next to me on the sofa ...and there is one lone piece of clothing that I still keep here in this room. Her fluffy heart dressing gown still hangs behind the door in the same place its always been. Sometimes as I walk by ...I can still see her in my minds eye all wrapped up in it after bath time. Sometimes I take it in my arms, close my eyes and imagine that she is still in it...smiling away and making her noises and smelling of mango and coconut body lotion.
Yes the room and the world moves on.... still rotates... and time passes by on lightening speed...
but many things remain exactly the same.
Twenty years ago today we were waiting anxiously... wondering if we would ever get to meet our little Henibean....alive.... as we had been warned by doctors that trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) was incompatible with life.
Today we have been celebrating Heni's 20th birthday...
We never would have imagined at the beginning of those 20 years that she would be here right now and that she would still be gracing our lives with her presence.
Today my post is a tribute and a birthday wish to our little Henibean....
I love to read books related to health, healing, well being and nutrition so when I was recommended The Blue zones recently I thought that I would give it a try. Here is a brief summary of what it's all about.
Dan Buettner (Author and National Geographic Explorer) together with some of the top scientist in the field of longevity traveled around and studied why some people tended to live longer in certain geographical areas in the world.... these areas have been labeled as the "Blue Zones". The areas they researched were Okinawa Japan, Sardinia, Loma Linda California, Costa Rica, and Ikaria Greece. For some reason, each of these regions has a higher than normal density of individuals who have lived to be centenarians.
Dan and his fellow researcher's purpose was to find out why this is the case and to see if they could discover any common factors.
Why Henibean?
I mentioned in my introduction that I have four children. My second eldest is a girl named Heni. Hence my nickname for her being Henibean. She is super cute and super special in more ways than one. She is a little miracle. In July we will hopefully be celebrating her 20th birthday. This is no mean feat considering that she has Edwards Syndrome (Trisomy 18...full form) and considering the statistics have always been against her!
Live birth prevalence is 2.3 babies per 10,000 births. Only 9% diagnosed pre-term make it to birth. Sadly most babies with Edwards are usually miscarried.
