Rory and the laundry guy5/8/2023 ![]() ![]() We experienced all the fluids - snot, vomit*, all kinds of poo, wee (and how important it is to be prepared and wary when changing a boy’s nappy) - you name it, we had laughed about it and cleaned it up. We learnt so much, as any new parent must. While this was obviously his official name, Matt and I had referred to Rory throughout pregnancy and the first 8 days as “The Bean”, which was inevitably what we carried on calling him. Rory, because we liked it and he was our little king (albeit not red-haired), and William after my dad. ![]() As I’m sure many new parents can attest to, there was no structure, no day and night, just endless hours within which to meet this new, glorious, demanding, confusing, wonderful human that we’d created. Matt, Rory and I spent a glorious two weeks together in a little family bubble while Matt was on Paternity Leave. ![]() Matt and I said from day one that Rory was always the expert in the room. Rory also breastfed almost perfectly straightaway - again, it was him that was in charge, and I was the clueless one catching up. And asking various midwives whether we’d put a nappy on correctly. We spent two nights in hospital - for my benefit, not Rory’s - and a lot of time staring in wonder and disbelief at our beautiful baby boy*. My waters also never broke - Rory was born in the amniotic sac, which is supposedly lucky, but take from that what you will… Although we’d been admitted to the Central Delivery Suite for extra monitoring, the midwife looking after us said that Rory’s trace was one of the calmest she’d ever seen in labour. He spent a very chilled, uneventful 9 months in utero and emerged at St Michael’s Hospital, only two days early, just as suavely as he intended to carry on*. ![]() If only someone could have told us that we needn’t have had any fear, because waiting just inside me here was the coolest cucumber of them all, the wisest of all owls: Rory William Hall.įrom day 1 of pregnancy, Rory was determined and knew exactly what he was doing. We weren’t even sure if we were the right people for the job at all. We knew, of course, that we were lucky, but Matt and I found ourselves thrown abruptly into a world of antenatal classes and birth plans that we really weren’t sure we were ready for. It’s a fairly safe bet which you’re more likely to see today, but that depends, to some extent, on how many gins I’m bought later…Īs some of you may know, Rory wasn’t entirely expected. I can’t decide whether more people have seen me cry in the last three months, or seen my boobs. Our lovely celebrant, Clare Bennett, welcomed us to the memorial service and gave a quick introduction to our family. More people than we ever expected to join us arrived (apologies for the lack of chairs – we were somewhat taken aback!) and so we began to celebrate Rory. Matt and I found the entire day completely overwhelming, but we were particularly overwhelmed by the generosity of those who’d decorated, baked, arranged flowers, written words and generally done so much behind-the-scenes work to make Rory’s day so special. An amazing team of friends had assembled there in the morning to set up tech for us and decorate the room. To set the scene: we were in the Glass Studio at St George’s Bristol – a gorgeous, airy room full of light. We had a private ceremony in the morning just with family at Westerleigh Crematorium, so Rory didn't actually attend the Celebration - in body anyway! And spend a moment thinking of our little boy. We found the writing process really cathartic and healing and forgive us for splurging it all here again, but we hope that it's helpful for those around us to share and understand. To see a copy of the order of service, please click here. Stuff in italics is to fill in any gaps, and asterisks signal where we showed a projected photo, the odd one of which we’ve included here. For those of you who couldn’t make Rory’s Celebration of Life, or for any who did come but wanted to revisit any bit of the story again, we thought we’d put some of the text up here. ![]()
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