Introducing Gerald (once again, courtesy of the wonderful talents of Mr. Carl Smith!)

He’s our chemo giraffe who is taking Gordon on and attacking him with jam and jelly (according to my niece and nephew, apparently it worked in Despicable Me 2…)!

I was just thinking back to how this character arose and realised it started with Sophie van der Stap and her amazing book ‘Meisje met negen pruiken’. Or; ‘The girl with nine wigs’. The book was loaned to me by my colleague just after Millie’s diagnosis and I started reading it and couldn’t put it down.

Sophie writes about her experience of being diagnosed with cancer and going through the chemotherapy as a young student. It’s a fresh, easy to read account of her experiences that already rang so many bells with our situation it was refreshing.
As difficult as things are, someone else has already been there, done that. We are not alone. Not by a long shot.

Sophie recounts her tales of hospital stays and refers to her IV drip stand as her ‘tall friend’. As this tall friend goes everywhere with you during treatment, it does indeed become a familiar friend. So, in our story he became a giraffe, due to his tall, thin stature. Which led to the only name he could possibly have, the same name as the giraffe character from Millie’s favourite childhood story.
You know the book you can read to your child without actually needing it in front of you? The one you can’t get away with skipping a bit when you’re exhausted and it’s late? That was Millie’s ‘Giraffe’s can’t dance’ story. We still have the book at home, dog-eared and very well read.

So here’s Gerald in all his Gordon shooting glory!

…and here are two of my gorgeous girlies & me going on one of our little jolly’s round the ward with Gerald.

Selfie!!!