Cressida Bonas doesn’t often share insights into her family life with her two-year-old son Wilbur.
However, on Sunday, the mother-of-one made a heartbreaking confession about raising her little one, whom she shares with her husband, Harry Wentworth-Stanley, in an emotional piece written about her late sister, Padora Cooper Keys.
Pandora sadly died at the age of 51 in July after battling cancer. Writing in The Sunday Times, the 35-year-old opened up about the grief she was feeling, particularly not being able to “talk about raising sons” as Pandora was a mother to two sons Bow, 17, and Nestor, 14.
Cressida wrote: “I wish I could talk to her about raising sons as I’m also now the mother of a baby boy. Her boys are teenagers and I’m just starting out with an almost two-year-old, so she had already walked the path that I’m beginning.
“I have a journal filled with scribbles and notes from conversations with my sisters. On one page, I had written down something Pandora said just after I’d given birth to a boy: “No matter what, they’ll always love and want to protect their mums.”
Pandora lived with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that greatly increases the risk of cancer. She was first diagnosed with cancer aged 26, when she developed Paget’s disease of the breast. At 34, she was diagnosed with sarcoma of the sinus, and from then on, she endured recurring episodes of cancer, seizures and serious infections.
Talking about her final moments, Cressida added: “Watching my sister’s courage will stay with me for ever. Though she sometimes felt frightened, she was always brave, and towards the very end she seemed to accept that she was dying. She knew she was heading to a more peaceful place without the pain. During my last moments with her, I got to hold her tight and say: ‘Thank you for being my big sister.”
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