Additional Needs

Saying Goodbye to Someone Special

Posted by Rebecca Toal on 10th September 2021 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities

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It’s never easy when someone important in your life announces they are moving countries. When my daughter’s respite carer, A, told me she was moving to England for her new job my heart just sank. I’ll be honest, the tears were streaming by the end of our conversation in the living room.

A is an amazing girl. She’s a classroom assistant in Brielle’s school for the deaf and blind, which is how we first met her. She would have loved to stay in the school but sadly a lot of the assistant positions are only temporary contracts with no job security and little rights L

Basically she was told near the start of last school year that she should look for other jobs as there were only a few places come September. How stressful for her…

We had such a great set-up in that she’d walk Brielle home from school on days she was watching her, and usually stop at the park and playground on the way home. Brielle just loved it! We have many fun memories of things A did with her- taking her to the beach, carving and decorating pumpkins at Halloween, taking her on carnival rides, taking her up on double-decker buses much to B’s excitement.

On her last day with us last week, A made a full day out of fun. A bus ride into town, playtime and lunch at Funky Monkeys, amusement ride-ons and finally stuffing a special monkey teddy at Build-a-Bear. It completely floored me- she calls Brielle a little monkey and they made a purple monkey smelling of grapes with a heartbeat you can press and a recording of A’s voice telling Brielle she can hug the monkey whenever she wants to hear her voice- so special!

Honestly feeling a bit lost now at the thought of losing A as a carer – it’s going to be very hard to find someone so caring and attentive to Brielle’s needs. A knows BSL (sign language) and was so amazing at pushing Brielle’s signing and communication. Hoping maybe we can find another person from her school but they’d never replace A.

So thankful for the year and a half we’ve had with her though and I know we’ll be lifelong friends as I know Brielle holds a special place in her heart too.