Pippa O’Connor has opened up about dealing with grief as well as becoming a mother for the first time.
Pippa’s mother, Louise, passed away unexpectedly in October of 2014 just after Pippa’s first child turned one.
This meant that Pippa was dealing with immense grief while also trying to navigate parenthood for the first time.
And she confesses that those years are very “hazy” now.
Speaking to Carl Mullan on his podcast, Phone Truths, she candidly discussed that time in her life.
“I often think I nearly forget Ollie’s first-second year. I always say to Brian, ‘Thank God for you at the time because I don’t really remember it.’ It was a weird hazy year because it was such a shock,” she admitted.
“It was something that we were not expecting, so to get a phone call like that your whole body just goes into this shock, autopilot mode, weird feeling.”
She went on to say that the grief has never gone away really.
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“Some months and years that pass are actually okay and now that it’s ten years it feels like it’s such a milestone, I feel as sad as I did back in year one, because you think God, that’s been a whole decade,” she explained.
“It’s a weird feeling, it’s like the memory of that person is just getting further away so that’s sad.”
Pippa’s mother sadly passed away after suffering a heart attack at the age of 61.
Pippa is the proud mother to three boys with her husband Brian Ormond, Ollie, 11, Louis, eight, and Billy, three. She admits that it makes her sad that Louise wasn’t there to mark the milestones with her.
“‘I think now she’d love to see all the grandkids, Billy having his birthday soon, a real rollercoaster of emotions,” she said.
“I think sometimes when someone’s gone that really emphasises the happy times more, it’s not just when things are sad that makes you sad it’s when something happy happens like the birth of a baby or something cool happening in business that actually can really make me feel sad as well. You feel bad for her for that person for missing those moments.”
In October, Pippa shared a tribute to her mother as she marked 10 years since her passing.
“It’s 10 years since we lost our Mum. It feels even harder from the last for some reason.. maybe a decade just feels like such a long time and a feeling of everything becoming more and more distant. It feels like only months ago in one way,” she wrote.
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“I miss her so much, I mostly feel so sad for her, for all she’s missed. She would love to be here to see her gorgeous grandkids.
“Time is a healer they say, I suppose that’s true, but the loss is always there. Grief for me is like rollercoaster, it comes in waves, it has at times felt soft and manageable. Then out of the blue it can hit you like a tonne of bricks.
“If you’ve lost someone special too all you can do is your best , be gentle to yourself but forge on and live a full life. You are stronger than you think.”
