The Lamb
by FionaMacAllister · 18 June 2026 · Biography & Memoir
Fiona tries to hand-rear a rejected lamb. It dies on the third day anyway. Her husband says nothing and puts a cup of tea on the floor beside her. A story about loss without any fuss.
It was the third week of lambing and I was running on four hours' sleep. The ewe had twins and wouldn't take the second one. That happens. You try to get her to accept it, stand with her for an hour in the cold, guide the lamb in, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This time it didn't. So I took the lamb inside, got it on a bottle, and it fed well enough for the first two days. On the third day it just stopped. Not sick, not injured. It lay down in the corner of the kitchen and stopped.
I've lost lambs before. I know what it looks like. I sat with it anyway, probably two hours, which is not a practical thing to do but there you are. My husband Donald came in at some point and didn't say anything, just put a cup of tea on the floor beside me. That was the right thing to do.
The ewe was fine. Raised the first twin without any trouble. You don't think about it too long or you couldn't do the work.
Read in the app, leave a resonance, discover more stories.