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Happy Birthday to my first-born

14th June 2010 by Helena 8 Comments  

I was a stepmother before I was a mother, to the lovely Hugo and Julia, who were still little enough to really mother and look after.

“This is perfect,” I used to say to Rupert. “Two beautiful children and I still get to keep my figure.”

Then something took over that made me want to have my own beautiful child. And so 11 years ago today, at around 8am English summer time, Olivia was born. Here she is on her first birthday, doing what most babies do, eating the packaging her present came in.

Actually she was not called Olivia when she was born, she was called Holly. I had just seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s for the 104th time and was inspired by Audrey. I should probably have called her Audrey.

Olivia was one of the names we liked, but my best (and only) friend in the village we lived in also had a daughter called Olivia. At the time I could not envisage moving, so it seemed too complicated to have two Olivias.

Then we moved to France and Holly became an impossibility. In French it sounds like ‘to bed’ so I changed her name by Deedpoll.

This morning my beautiful, elegant and very tall Olivia lay in my arms as I kissed her happy birthday and I remembered how her whole little body used to fit on my chest just in between and slightly above my breasts, her favourite sleeping spot. Now of course she wears my clothes, plays piano beautifully and tells me how everything in the world works.

She is a most accomplished, graceful and lovely girl, and I’m very proud of her. Happy Birthday Olivia.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: birthday, first, happy

8 thoughts on Happy Birthday to my first-born

  • Catherine says:
    15th June 2010 at 6:55 am

    What a lovely piece Helena; your love for all your children positively shines through.
    How are you all celebrating Olivia’s birthday?

  • Mieke says:
    15th June 2010 at 10:16 am

    Happy Birthday Olivia! Happy birthday mom! I always think it’s my anniversary as a mom too when my eldest daughter has her birthday.
    ( And all my 6 kids used to have the same favorite spot to sleep too when they were babies! How time flyes huh?)

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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