I was just five years old when my father died in a car accident. And then, a few months after that, my grandmother was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
We lived with her so, quite suddenly, my mum, who was only 33 at the time, had to deal with both of these awful losses, and at the same time with having a young daughter to care for.
I’m almost the same age she was then myself now, and I can hardly imagine how it must have felt to have had the weight of all this on her shoulders.
But what I know, and what I remember more than anything, is that through all this terrible maelstrom my mum kept me safe.
She always focused on me, on doing activities with me, and on making me feel safe and protected.
Towards the end of my grandmother’s life she organised a nurse to look after her part of the time, so that she could make time to be with me, and for us to do things together.
She was also always very honest with me about exactly what was going on. She explained things, and that made them seem a lot less scary.
Ana Pinheiro, 30, is a bank worker and lives in Lisbon
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