The Blue Satin Dress

This photo depicts a sweet and innocent Shelley on her way to her fourth birthday party, wearing a blue satin dress that her Mother Betty, a bridal dressmaker, had made for her. We can see Shelley proudly showing off her new outfit and excited for the upcoming celebration. However, her excitement was not shared by those around her, because unlike Shelley, they knew that this might well be the last significant milestone that Betty would be there for. As it turned out, she did not survive to see Shelley’s fifth birthday, as she died of breast cancer shortly after this photo was taken.

Shelley then lived with her Father, Leon, who took care of her as a single parent for the next five years. He created a normal childhood for the daughter he loved and never thought he would be lucky enough to have, until one night after their usual bedtime cuddle, he died instantly of a fatal heart attack. In that moment Shelley’s childhood ended and her life changed, but not for the good. Not only had Shelley lost both her parents by the age of 9, but she then suffered the unfortunate consequence of then losing her school, her home and finally her identify.

Over the course of the next few years, Shelley was surrounded by a conspiracy of silence, as adults felt that a child’s pain was too difficult to bear. So Shelley kept her story silent and lived in fear and anguish for the next 30 years before deciding she wanted to change that narrative for the bereaved children whose stories came next.