Roseanna Ruane has spoken candidly about how her feelings towards her birthday have changed since the loss of her beloved daughter Saoírse and the one thing that she doesn’t do anymore.
12-year-old Saoírse sadly passed away after a long battle with cancer in 2024. She stole the hearts of the nation with her appearance on the Late Late Toy Show in 2020, and the whole country grieved her death. Her mother, Roseanna, has been documenting her grief on social media, frankly sharing her experience in the hope that she will help others going through a similar situation.
This week, Roseanna turned 47 years old, and she took to Instagram to share how ‘complicated’ her feelings are towards her birthday these days.
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Sharing a side-by-side photo of herself as a baby and her now, the mum reflected on what her younger self didn’t know – how ‘breathtakingly beautiful’ and ‘incredibly hard’ her life would be.
‘She didn’t know there would be days she would question herself, lose pieces of herself, and have to find her way back,’ Roseanna poignantly said.
Roseanna looks back on her younger self and feels proud of the lessons life has taught her. ‘Birthdays have become complicated for me. They are no longer just a celebration. Since losing my beautiful daughter, Saoírse, they carry a sadness that never really leaves,’ Roseanna said about her birthday. ‘They are emotional, triggering, and a reminder of the person I wish was here to celebrate with me.’
Touching on the one thing that she now refuses to do, the grieving mum said: ‘I refuse to blow out my candles as it doesn’t feel right, instead I happily let someone else do it for me.’
Something that Roseanna says she has learned from this experience is that ‘grief and gratitude can exist in the same heart’.
‘I hold no regrets in my life, it’s too short for that. I’m just grateful for another sunrise, another day to live, the air in my lungs, my ability to help others through my own journey and to be able to smile each and every day in thanks for the person I have become,’ she said.
Roseanna finished her moving words by saying that growing older ‘is a privilege that not everyone gets’ and she is celebrating not just ‘another year of life’ but ‘the resilience’ that got her to this point.
‘The love that continues to shape me, the many precious friendships that have surrounded me and the little girl who never knew how difficult life could be – only that she had to keep going.’
