Entry 6 — Memoir Shard: The Carer Who Forgot Herself

BLOG SERIES: The Twelve Pages of My Own Cheerleader

PAGE 6 — Memoir Shard: The Carer Who Forgot Herself

I was always the one who showed up.

The helper.

The fixer.

The woman who could be counted on, no matter what it cost her.

I learned early that my value lived in what I could give, not in who I was.

So I gave everything.

Time.

Energy.

Sleep.

Pieces of myself I didn’t realise were disappearing.

Hypervigilance disguised itself as kindness.

People called me reliable, strong, selfless —

but underneath, I was exhausted in ways no one could see.

I didn’t know then that caring for everyone else had quietly erased me.

I didn’t know that my body would eventually revolt.

I didn’t know that forgetting myself would become the most dangerous habit of all.

It took menopause, neurodivergence, and the collapse of my old life to show me the truth:

I had been carrying everyone for so long that I no longer recognised the weight.

I was already becoming my own cheerleader — I just didn’t know it yet.

Footnote: Twelve future chapters for a book.

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