God, grief and a month on the farm

When Miranda Adderley was told that her unborn grandson was unlikely to survive outside the womb, she organised a countryside retreat for her family. Together, they processed their grief in the beauty of nature, and slowly learned to see the goodness of God again

We are an ordinary family. Mum, Dad, four daughters and a wee grandson. We’ve had our share of grief and worry over the years, but nothing prepared us for the shock of discovering that our second grandchild had the chromosome condition Trisomy 18, known as Edwards’ syndrome. In the months that followed, scan after scan showed that Joseph Jesse had serious cardiac and digestive abnormalities and life outside the womb would be fleeting at best. 

How do you prepare for something like this? We were at a loss and grieved both the imagined future of a second beloved grandchild and the trauma our daughter was facing.