Creating the magic: Once upon a time…

Once upon a time there lived a small family who lived in a curious one level house in a sleepy village to the south of England.  The children were two babes born at the same time, who had suddenly reached the tremendous age of seven and one smaller bairn, who was terribly proud to be three, and a half.

Together they lived with their parents and they were fortunate enough to have a Fairy Grandmother who sadly lived far away, over the hills and rivers in the north of Britain.  The Fairy Grandmother was a sweet loving lady who doted on her grandchildren and seized every opportunity to shower them with kindness and the kids adored her.

It was a cold october, a year ago, when the kind Grandmother took her daughter and her three little ones away to a beautiful hotel in the town of Buxton.  The trip was meant to be a break away from the norm, a few days of fun discovering the delights of the north delighting in each others company.

The holiday was anything but.

Whilst the sights were pretty, the hotel divine, the eldest child, the female twin, was quiet, withdrawn, pale and ferociously angry or terribly sad.  Her mood ricocheted through the holiday, her tears created upset and her mother and grandmother despaired.  The child seemed to be troubled and it was as if a demon tormented her.  Aged six, she slept like a newborn, craving her bed, she struggled to walk any distance and seemed to be overcome with fatigue.

The holiday ended, with the mother desperate to know what ailed her usually bright and bubbly girl.

Halloween arrived and the demon within the girl was revealed to be an autoimmune disease, a diabetic devil had seized the small girl and high blood sugars had been savaging her insides, driving her crazy, controlling her soul.

The mother was distraught, she had missed the signs, failed to see the disease eating away at her little one.  But then, with acceptance came relief, as the injected insulin worked its magic and bit by bit her lovable little girl returned.

A year passed and the whole family grew to live with diabetes, the young girl surpassed all expectations in her ability to deal with something so big, so young.  The other two children proved remarkable in their support.  And of course, the Fairy Grandmother was always there to help.

And so it was that to mark a year from the day she was diagnosed, the Fairy Grandmother waved her magic wand and took the three children and her daughter on a second trip.

Together, armed with smiles and bags, they climbed aboard a train and set off to a fantasical land and marvelled in wonder at the sights that beheld them.

The youngest squealed in happiness when the characters from her playroom came alive before her eyes.  She rode with Peter Pan and swerved past Big Ben en route to Neverland.  She worked with Giuseppe and built a boy from wood and cheered with joy when he became a real boy.  She wore her finest cowboy gear and jumped into the air when she saw her idol and he picked her out from the crowd. She fell to sleep each night, exhausted but smiling, with little mouse ears still circling her head.

The boy?  He danced through disney, he battled with pirates on a Caribbean ship.  He flirted with a mermaid and fled from Indians on a runaway train.  He held his stomach and laughed till he cried when an blue alien stole a spaceship and he later joined Star Command and fought the good fight against evil Emporer Zurk.  His enjoyment was contagious, his smile stretched from ear to ear.

And the type 1 warrior girl could have not asked for a better place to spend her year anniversary.  She flew up Space mountain shrieking, she sang and waved as her favourite stars strode by.  She hid in fake terror from a wicked witch and watched in amazement at a Firework show like none we had even seen before.  As darkness fell she lit up like a star and ran from ride to show to ride again.  Beaming all the way, showing her diabetes who was the true master.  Her anniversary arrived, as planned, on Halloween and she recalled how a year ago she was terrified, laid in hospital, cowering from a disease that she had not even heard of.

A year on and confidence was in her step, needles in her backpack and sugar in her pocket.  The girl was back, happy and deliciously healthy.

The mother and fairy grandmother saw the magic through the eyes of the babes.  They waved at Princes on horseback and rode roller coasters with the young ones, cleverly disguising their fear.  The mother shot picture after picture, capturing the moments on her new beautiful camera (a gift which was given by Bespoke Offers – on which she could record every second in intricate detail.). The Grandmother just watched, smiled and rejoiced in seeing some of the magic she had created.  The sun shone and the rain stayed away and it was all simply glorious.

And of course, they all lived happily every after.

Disclosure: We were given a Panasonic Lumix Camera to take pictures of our holiday to Eurodisney by Bespoke Offers, all photography my own, I adore my new toy!