Forever Baby

“I have a darling baby. A patient placid baby who nuzzles warmly into her sheepskin and gives me a sleepy smile when I come in. She sits up, bounces happily and reaches out for a cuddle …”

“I’ve had my darling baby for nearly twenty years now and unless something happens, I guess I’ll have her for another twenty years.”

Praise for Forever Baby –

“Mary’s writing has the quality of being both a participant and an observer. As a participant in a life and death voyage, she writes with emotional force. As an observer, there are some great passages of acute observation and stark – sometimes black – humour.

“But the dominant emotion is love: love given by Mary and the Burbidge Family to their daughter Jenny; love given by Jenny to Mary and family. A special love for a special child, which we are privileged, through this book, to share.”

The Hon. Joan Kirner, former Premier of Victoria

“Some people just burn with a brighter flame, and Mary Burbidge, doctor, mother and fierce diarist, is one of them. When Mary gave birth over twenty years ago to a disabled baby girl, she began writing from the heart to make sense and meaning of her life.

“I have quoted Mary’s experience in one of my own books, but I could never have suspected the dramatic turn of events that would conclude this story. The gritty, heart-bursting world of parenting is captured in a way that I have rarely met elsewhere, but the drama, transcendence and tragedy of raising a child with a disability takes this to a deeper plane still.

“Jenny’s story and Mary’s telling of it, will grip the reader and change how they see the world around them for a very long time.”

Steve Biddulph, psychologist and author