A fairy tale

I'd just managed to get through the first day of August this year when I got an email from a friend. It was 9pm, maybe later and I was not far off from falling in to bed. It was from my dear friend Tonia, and she said she had an idea.

She saw I was participating in the Instagram photo a day challenge for August as part of a distraction ploy to help me get through this hellish month (and also because I lurve the Instagrams!) so she said she wanted to do something similar, but with her art. A wonderful designer and illustrator, Tonia was one of the first people we contacted when we came home from hospital bereft, dazed and confused without Hope. I sent her a photo of Hope, one of the very first times I ever shared her photo and at a moments notice, she put together a funeral booklet for us then a few weeks later, a thank you card. She's since done thank you cards and birthday invitations for the living babies who have followed. She's quite simply a gem and has always said and done the right thing and never shied away from the intensity of my grief. Everyone grieving person needs a Tonia in their life.

Tonia loves fairy tales and thought it would be a nice idea to illustrate a popular fairy tale every day this month to celebrate Hope, because reading fairy tales is one of the bazillion things in life Hope never got to do. At the end of the month, her idea was to sell prints of her 31 creations for $20 a pop with all funds going to the Stillbirth Foundation Australia. Within an hour or two of Tonia sending me her email, she had posted her first design, Snow White, to Facebook. Then I posted it. Then the "likes" started streaming in.

Every day since, she has posted one of her designs, as have I, and the interest has been phenomenal. We thought this would just be a little project we could share between our families and friends, but it has all of a sudden got much bigger than that, such is the wonder of social networking. A blog has sprung up, as has a Facebook page and we are now working with a beautiful print company with lovely "green" credentials to bring this gorgeous little initiative to life. The Stillbirth Foundation is also on board to help set up an ordering and postage system for these beautiful and imaginative illustrations.

It has been a crazy few days. Absolutely mind blowing, really. I've always wanted to do something powerful, meaningful and important since Hope died, but I just had to figure out what it was. This is it. I can't really take credit for it, as this is all Tonia's doing, but I want to make sure I give my all to this project, as it just feels so bloody right.

I think the power of this is a) in Tonia's beautiful work b) the fact that it is for a wonderful cause and c) that people don't just have to give money, but that they get to buy something truly beautiful and unique. The pieces are so fun and happy and vibrant - everything a dead baby is not, I suppose. Because losing a baby is just about the worst thing that can happen to a person, but even when it does happen, there can still be beauty. There can still be light. There will always be fairy tales.

So I bring you, Fairy Tales For Hope. Please head over and have a look. Once the project is complete we plan on having 100 of each of the 31 prints available to sell but if the interest is there, we hope we can take this even further. Feels like the sky could be the limit. I think Hope would love this. What almost four year old doesn't love fairy tales?

If there was anything that could help get me through this particular August, this is it.

www.fairytalesforhope.blogspot.com