Pippa O'Connor and her mum

Pippa O'Connor shares touching advice on dealing with grief following death of beloved mum

06 Nov 2024, 05:00 by Sandra Mallon · Irish Mirror

Model Pippa O’Connor has told how her whole body went into shock when she was told of the moment her mother had passed away.

And the businesswoman admitted the first few years of her firstborn son Ollie’s life were a bit hazy as she navigated through grief.

She said: “Myself and Brian were living in Meath at the time, Ollie, my eldest… he had just turned one so it was just after his first birthday. I often think I nearly forget Ollie’s first-second year. I always say to Brian, ‘thank God for you at the time because I don’t really remember it.’

“It was a weird hazy year because it [losing mum] was such a shock, it was something that we were not expecting, so to get a phone call like that your whole body just goes into this shock, autopilot mode, weird feeling,” she told Carl Mullan on his podcast Phone Truths.

Pippa’s mother Louise passed away ten years ago and Pippa said she regrets not more voicemails from her.

“I would’ve had snippets that I would’ve taken but not like every day now we are taking videos of each other. I definitely wish I had more of that. I have pictures from back in the day but pictures that would’ve belonged to family members that I printed. A few on my phone but things would’ve gotten wiped or things are missing,” she says.

Pippa O'Connor with Carl Mullan on his podcast Phone Truths.

“Note to anyone listening: definitely do print things! Our grannies were great at putting things into albums so I was thinking recently I want to do an album for each of my boys.”

She also admitted that while she has had better periods when she is not as strongly affected by loss, it still can make her feel just as bad as it did at the start.

Pippa said: “It’s weird I don’t think it [grief] does [go away], some months and years that pass are actually okay and now that it’s ten years it feels like it’s such a milestone, I feel as sad as I did back in year one, because you think God, that’s been a whole decade. It’s a weird feeling, it’s like the memory of that person is just getting further away so that’s sad.

“You’d get a whiff of someone’s Chanel No. 5 and it catches me off guard. October the colours of the leaves, the orange and red, that just reminds me of that week. I think [my advice] is to feel the moment and to not try and resist it and not try and not go, “oh it’s been three years so I should be okay.

“You might feel okay in year one but then you might feel back at square one in year ten, I think you just have to go with it and be kind to yourself. I think you always have to go easy on yourself and give yourself credit for what’s happened and I think depending on how someone has passed away as well, you know if it’s been a shock you may not have dealt with it in the first few years.”

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