Nelly B

We received the preliminary results concerning Nelly's death this week. Nelly tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) - as did our other two children. All were quite poorly with this common winter virus, but for some reason Nelly could not cope with it and died in her sleep just hours after being checked out by our GP. RSV can be bad in small babies but is rarely fatal. There was presumably some hidden defect in Nelly that led to her death, but I suspect we will never know what it was.

Defect or not, for me Nelly was a perfect little daughter and I cannot describe how much we all miss her. She completed our little gang when she arrived in 2008, in a way we could not have anticipated. Beautiful, bright and easy-going, her death has left a huge void in our lives and things will be a struggle for a long time to come I suspect.

Thanks to everyone who has dropped in, called, written and sent messages of support, I will get round to writing to you all soon. Nelly will be cremated quietly next week, no fuss, and we hope to have a gathering to celebrate her short but happy life in the summer.