Carolyn Mayling pays tribute to late daughter Rosie in most poignant memoir of the year

msn.com:

Carolyn Mayling's vivacious daughter Rosie was just 11 when she died suddenly in May 2003. "Mummy, I am going to die of this," she had declared fearfully the previous December when she couldn't stop coughing.

Carolyn reassured her daughter everything would be fine. After all, she had so much to look forward to, having just started pantomime rehearsals at the theatre school Carolyn runs with her sister. "She managed a couple of weeks of rehearsals before she had to drop out of the show," remembers Carolyn, whose former pupils include Kate Winslet, Joanne Froggatt and EastEnder Lucy Benjamin. "Rosie struggled through Christmas Day, trying so hard to enjoy herself.

She had lost weight, had no energy, and the dark rings under her eyes gave her a gaunt look. Even though medics were not concerned, my husband David and I had a deep sense of unease. "It wasn't until April that Rosie was finally diagnosed with vasculitis - an auto-immune disorder which causes the blood vessels to become inflamed.

It was not supposed to be a serious illness, and can be treatable, but Rosie continued to deteriorate. Then in early March after a CT scan, Rosie was suddenly taken into hospital.