Here’s a story about one of the most beautiful families I know. They live on the stunning Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia, where I’m from. Georgie and Pete have two beautiful girls, Anna 2 and Lucy 1. It’s a lot to be envious of.
But it’s one of those stories that makes you check yourself, and leave judgments aside, because as with us all, you just don’t know what other people are going through.
Right now, Pete is riding from Sydney to Canberra to raise money for research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), because back in June 2012, their first baby, Sam, tragically died from this unknown cause.
Sammy Keach.
The ride called Sydney 2 CAMberra is now in its 5th year and was created by a Sydney couple who lost their son Cameron through stillbirth. You can read how close Pete is to his fundraising target on his GoFundraise page and more about the research and support around SIDS and the SIDS and Kids site.
While Sam’s death obviously shattered Georgie and Pete’s beautiful existence, Georgie has still managed to carry on being the creative and loving woman that she is. While she is currently support crew for Pete’s ride, she took some time to tell me more about how she does it.
Anna, Georgie and Lucy Keach
“So I have the girls full time. They are both still quite young (aged 2 and 1) so no kindergarten or school yet. My days are fairly low key, just doing things around home and our local area. At the moment I don’t really have time alone to have creative space but I can still influence the daily activities to my interests. After such a significant loss it really becomes obvious what is important and what just doesn’t matter.
I have always loved cooking and since setting up our little home in Rye one of the first projects was to start a productive veggie garden. This is definitely something that I can do whilst still having the girls around and in fact I think their “help” in the garden keeps it somewhat irregular adding to the appeal. I have a huge appreciation for the different seasons now and how much the timing influences what we can grow and turn into something (hopefully) amazing in the kitchen. If I were to be philosophical, I love all of the teachings this can also bring to our girls with an understanding and appreciation of real food,” she says.
“After we lost Sam in 2012, I was completely broken. The loss of our boy is obvious but I also really struggled with loosing my ‘job’ as a mum (I was at home with him full-time). I did start work after some months but also spent a lot more time cooking and had a thriving veggie garden at the time. Our pet chickens probably enjoyed being so well looked after too.
In terms of inspiration, I think we have access to so much more with Instagram, Pinterest etc. Its so easy to share ideas and research a new home project or recipe. If its anything to do with the garden, Mum is always my best resource. She’s either got it in her garden or grown it at some point so that always helps me.”
The people I interview on Mumspo always send me their own pics – I work full-time and I don’t have a budget, so I rely on their innate style to send me soemthing amazing, always. But the pic at the top of this piece is perhaps more significant than most. It’s Pete and Georgie at a beach when she was pregnant with Anna on the day they scattered Sam’s ashes. It is a local beach to where they live in Rye and is where they would often take him. They now go there with the girls regularly and love having a spot to spend time thinking of him. A visit there has become a part of new family traditions on birthdays, Christmas and other milestone events.
If you’re not crying like I am by now, which is honestly making typing quite hard, use your lovely eyeballs to head over to Pete’s fundraising page to share a quid. As I write, he’s only $3,000 away from his $30,000 target.
Pete Keach and family at home in Rye
