![]() So nearly a year on, they have a sister for their sons, but are still struggling for answers.Band of criminal squatters reclaim property after SWAT team raid that found guns, stolen cars - and owners are ‘giving up’ If it does, it's not always clear what it is. Shaun and Mary believe everything happens for a reason. ![]() To paraphrase Louis Theroux, I arrived a television producer and left as a friend. They asked me to do a short reading at Bethany's funeral about not forgetting, as if one could or would. Here, perhaps, was something that might just encourage and sustain others. They were just a regular couple from the "modest" northern suburbs, doing what they thought was right: taking a difficult decision, and living with the consequences. The result was honest and heartbreaking, raw and, sometimes, almost unbearable.Īnd perhaps there we have another reason why Shaun and Mary agreed to the documentary. Here he found amateur therapists, friends and drinking partners that just about kept him on the tracks. For him, participating in the documentary, and the people with whom it brought him into contact, became a sanity-saving diversion. Where Mary became focused and resilient, to outsiders appearing to shut down the emotional in favour of the practical, Shaun was shredded by the trauma of the pregnancy. Shaun was always more vulnerable than his wife. The television companies made a payment into a trust fund to be used to help bring up Bethany and Alyssa, both of whom, joined or apart, would have special needs.Įven so, Shaun and Mary could have said no, but they went ahead. This must also have been a part of their calculations. In part, of course, Shaun and Mary's decision to approve the filming would give their daughters a degree of financial security. In return for the odd press conference with Shaun and medical staff, the family was left alone. The Australian media, perhaps surprisingly given the parentage of some of Britain's tabloids, behaved impeccably. The pregnancy didn't become public until the final days. The result was a co-production between Granada Television in the UK and Channel 9 in Sydney. The PR company advised them to strike a deal for an exclusive documentary that would allow the rest of the media to be kept at arms length. It seemed to work.įrom the start, Shaun and Mary were pointed in the same direction. When the news broke, the hospital used a public-relations company to handle the media. They, too, were joined at the head, though less severely than Bethany and Alyssa. A year earlier, Scott Campbell separated another set of conjoined twins at the same hospital in Brisbane. Partly, it was the advice they were given. Why make it more stressful by inviting strangers into your home to record not only what you do but also, with a lot of emotion around, how you feel? Shaun and Mary knew that there would be difficult, perhaps tragic, times ahead. I just want to bring my daughter home."īut how to explain their decision to go ahead with the documentary? The strains on the family were obvious. Shaun smiles, lifts his can of beer to the sunset and then begins to cry: "We might have a few problems with her, but who cares? She's going to live. Scott Campbell says she's going to pull through." Scott Campbell is the neurosurgeon who carried out the operation to separate Alyssa and Bethany 72 hours earlier. yes." I guess it is Mary on the other end. It is dusk, and while we're talking Shaun's mobile rings. We take a detour to a river on the north side of Brisbane, Australia, where the family lives. Now Mary is by Alyssa's side in intensive care and Shaun is driving home to be with the family's three young sons. Shaun and Mary Nolan, the twins' parents, are already grieving the death of Bethany. She has a hole 30cm in circumference in her skull where her sister Bethany used to be. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |