It was on December 3, 2020 that the contractions started and little brother Francis was getting ready to come out.
– It went very quickly from when I had my first contractions to when he was out. We were only about 40 minutes into the delivery, says Helena Froststjärna in Nyhetsmorgon.
Daughters Helia, 2.5, and Isolde, 1.5, had been left with Helena’s parents where they were to spend the night.
– What happens then is that they choose to place Isolde in their guest house. After all, this was in the winter and they normally didn’t have the heat on out there, so they had put the electric elements and the heating fan on full heat.
Found her dead
And the heat was left on – all night.
– In the morning they found her dead. We know today, after the autopsy, that she died of heat stroke and lack of oxygen, says Helena.
Almost three years have passed since Isolde’s death and today Helena has no contact with her parents.
– It’s not really something I wish for, but it was a choice my parents made when we had received answers from the autopsy.
The parents were convicted
Today, Helena Froststjärna works as a supervisor in grief processing and lectures a lot on the subject. It has given her more understanding of her parents’ distance.
– I know that many times we are affected by shame and guilt when we perhaps expose someone else to grief. So I understand that they probably couldn’t handle it any other way.
Helena’s parents were convicted of causing another’s death, but today she feels no lasting anger towards them.
– I had to work very hard on that. I can still feel it flare up sometimes, but it’s very short bursts.
Helena’s best tip: How to deal with someone in grief