Friday 13th November 1982
A child is born. That child is me, Celeste Elouisa Montrose. My mother cradled me in her arms. It had been a difficult labour, 48 hours. She's had to do it alone, but she couldn't understand. Where was he? Christophe Nandino Montrose had been her husband for 5 years. They'd had a happy marriage. They'd never argued. Not even much. He said he'd be there. He'd said he was on his way. But that was 47 hours ago. She sat their puzzled, cradling her baby girl in her arms. 5lbs she weighed. The most beautiful thing on earth. The woman wept into her nightgown. And then the midwife came in and handed her the phone. A few minutes later she put down the phone, picked up her baby, put her in the cot and then left the hospital. The midwife called after her. No reply.
Friday 13th January 1987
I lay calmly, sleeping in my bright pink bed. Ellen and Matt were in their room, just across the way. They were sleeping, Matt held Ellen in his arms. Suddenly there was a noise. The noise was louder than any noise I'd ever heard before. I sat up in bed and wept into my duvet. "Mummy" I called, "Daddy", but there was no reply. I clambered out of bed and crawled to the large window in my room. I sat on the windowsill; the fire brigade were already here. A tall woman with brown hair was shouting at me to jump. I followed her instructions. I threw my bright pink duvet out of the window and leaped onto it. The woman cradled me in her arms as my home and my foster parents blew into a thousand pieces.
Friday 13th March 2004
When I was 16 I had my first proper boyfriend, his name was Tom. I fell in love with Tom because of his sandy brown hair and gentle blue eyes. But what I loved most about Tom was his shiny blue Harley Davidson. On Friday night, it was the night of my best friend Abby's 16th birthday and a group of us had arranged to have a quiet night in with a pizza and a movie. Tom had texted me and told me he would be at Abby's by seven. It wasn't until about nine when I got the text from Tom's mum saying he'd passed away in a tragic motorbike accident.
Friday 13th May 2007
I finally found love again when I met a guy called Steve at university. When I found out I was pregnant it came as a shock but slowly me and Steve were preparing us for the challenges of parenthood. I was only 6 months pregnant when I gave birth to my daughter. Ellen I named her, after the only mum I'd ever known. Steve and I were standing hand in hand around the incubator our beautiful baby girl lay in; when the doctor arrived and told us that her heart had stopped working.
Friday 13th July 2009
I never believed it was a coincidence that all these things happened on Friday 13th. After all I was born on the most unlucky day in the calendar. But when I woke up next to Steve on that day in 2009, I looked at my clock and for a split second believed today would be different. Steve was at work when I first started getting the pain. The pain was so harsh I swore I could die. My beautiful baby son Jacob Daniel Jones came as a surprise. When me and Steve at the front of the church I'd grown up going to, hand in hand cradling our baby son, I knew that I was the luckiest girl on the planet.