Fifteen years ago I had to deal with the sudden and devastating loss of my mother, Corinne Heiss. I was only 12 years old.
But today I always feel that she is inside me and that her spirit is part of me. I’m grateful to her every day for what she gave me and what that means for my life today.
I was lucky enough to be born and raised in Paris with a wonderful woman for a mother. She really was a free spirit and her guiding principles were to be as happy and loving in life as possible. These ambitions I feel she has passed on to me.
She very much knew her own mind – and I know mine. I am stronger and more confident because I always have my mum in my heart, and she’s with me every day. Whatever I do and whatever decisions I take, I know she is right there, too, alongside me. And that means her loss isn’t painful, because I don’t feel I have lost her. I feel she’s with me.
My family like to tell me that I have a lot of my mother about me, and that makes me so happy, and so proud.
Is there someone you’d like to say thank you to? Write to us at magazine@observer.co.uk
