“I brought my daughter into the world and took her out of it.” This stark, raw sentence encapsulates the deepest sorrow and a strange, bittersweet relief that came with my experience. As I held Deborah’s hand, feeling the last spark of her extraordinary energy fade, waves of grief washed over me. Yet, amid the heartbreak, there was relief—the relentless, excruciating pain that had consumed my beautiful, whirlwind of a daughter was finally over. The force of nature that was Dame Deborah James had gone, leaving only memories, love, and the echo of her indomitable spirit.
