Reluctant farewell to a trusted companion

Valediction for a stroller

Featured in

Buy $18.50 – 27.99
  • Published 20240507
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-95-5
  • Extent: 203pp
  • Paperback, ePub, PDF, Kindle compatible

IT WAS A difficult parting that I have struggled to articulate for many years. I did not want to be kind and donate my red double stroller to the charity shop at the maternity hospital. I accept that this admission probably makes me some kind of monster, but if I give you the reasons then you might understand how important it was to me at a time in my life that was unlike any other before it.

I have happily given away many things to friends, acquaintances and charity – furniture, toys, clothes, shoes, books. But, to me, the red double stroller could not be categorised into a class of inanimate objects. It was much more than that – and I did not want to give it away.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
0 Shares

Subscribe to great writing

Access starts at just $6 per month. Print and digital options to suit every budget!

Learn more

More from author

Know thyself

We spoke to the genetic counsellor and the doctors. I had more than a 70 per cent risk of breast cancer and close to a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer in my lifetime. This would require vigilant surveillance, but with ovarian cancer there is no reliable screening method. It can already be advanced before it’s detected, which is what happened with my mother.
My mind kept taking me back to those sandy ruins and the Pythia. Those characters in mythology who tried to avoid their fate even when she had given them the answer. You can run but you can’t hide from destiny. Enter the acts of dramatic surgical intervention. Like a deus ex machina, but without the gods, just the science.

More from this edition

Exemplary 

Poetry The superego’s unvarying verdict: you have failed, you deserve it, get over it!  Stay in your own psychotic micro-enclave,  opining about enactment and re-enactment. Now and again there’s...

picker

Poetry light’s tacked to the window i  want it to pick at me eat  me like fairy floss or a scab you  say it’s sexual frustration i  pick at...

For my ex (an unforgiving poem)

Poetry Trust me when I wished you an eventful summer by which I meant processing yourself like a tardy  Microsoft update You will have my blessing. Trust me  about...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.