The death of a loved one is an earth shattering event at any stage in life.

But it’s possibly all the more devastating when you’re preparing to bring their child into the world. For reader Sinéad Hingston, this was the reality in July 2011. Sinéad was five months pregnant when her husband Geoff died on holidays. She explains: “We were on holidays in Portugal, with my parents and his Dad. We went on a boat trip and he went for a swim while the boat was anchored. He swam around for about 5 minutes then had some sort of seizure. He was taken onto a dingy that was doing the caves trip from the main boat and brought him to shore but wouldn't let us on it. They came back to get us about an hour and a half later, and brought us to the marine, where the ambulance crew told me they had worked on him for "a long time" but he didn't make it. We still don't really know what happened to him, we have our own assumptions. The Portuguese wouldn't confirm that as they seems toxicology tests an unnecessary expense.” Now Sinéad has opened up about the struggles she faced after Geoff’s death. In a Facebook post shared on Saturday Sinéad writes: “I was 19 weeks pregnant, and can honestly say, hand on my heart, that that pregnancy is the only thing that kept me here. We were married a wonderful 7 months. Life was amazing, happy, exciting. Then my reality hit. Widowed, nowhere to live, no life insurance and moving back from London to live with my parents, pregnant with our little Bubba. I have never felt a wave of darkness wash over me as quick as I did that day.” In the post she talks about how her daughter Lily is the light of her life. She writes: “she knows just what to say, when to say it (sometimes a little too much!) She makes me smile and laugh in ways that I never thought I'd be able to again. She talks openly about the man she never met, her Daddy. It's her normal.” Sinéad hopes that the post will inspire others who are in a dark place. “There is always hope. Time is a wonderful thing we all take for granted in everything we do. I have my ups and downs. I'd be lying if I said that I had never thought about how much better off everyone would be if I wasn't around, but those thoughts pass. There are days where I really just want to curl up under a duvet and not leave the house, but I make myself, because I know that feeling will pass, I know things get better, I'm living proof. When you hit the bottom, the ONLY way is up again” she says. Read the full post below.