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Leah Haines

@leahainess

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ex fashion, consultant, pilates instructor
☘️, 10+ years a Londoner
finding comfort in words 🕊️
📍 🇦🇺 Darwin

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With outstanding bravery, grace and dignity, Mum passed away on the 20th of November surrounded by our love, following a horrific 16 month battle with bile duct cancer. She experienced hell on earth and held her own in indescribable ways, so beautiful until her last breath. Proud will never cover it, but gosh we are so unbelievably proud. Without one drop of anger she stared death straight in the eyes and did not waiver.

Caring for Mum will forever be the greatest honour of our lives. To St Vincent’s University and Tullamore Regional Hospital, thank you for everything but most importantly how well you looked after Mum, and in turn, us. To our family and friends, we will never be able to repay you for all you have and continue to do. Love is quietly consistent and you have loudily shown up. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Heartbroken doesn’t come close to describing the pain of losing our best friend, and we have no idea how to navigate this world without her in it. We will forever strive to make her proud, as everything we are is because of her. The fun, the humour, the lust for life. Heaven just got a lot more glam!

An iconic woman, an unfathomable battle. We love you more than we can ever say Mum, forever & always ours.. & how lucky are we to have known such a love.

Ray, Leah & Robert xx by @leahainess

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a year ago

Dear Mum, Month 10 🌩️

Double digits hitting as hard as Darwin’s change of season ⚡️

It’s not that deep? Well some things I think deserve to be..

#griefjourney #healing #poetry #griefandloss #griefsupport taken in Darwin, Northern Territory by @leahainess

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2 days ago

6/7 Indonesia - Bali Babes pt. 2 💘🍓🍹❤️‍🔥☕️ 🌅 🏄‍♀️

A snippet of the most incredible beachfronts, food & people - I never wanted to leave Uluwatu 🥲

#bali #backpacking #travelling taken in Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia by @leahainess

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7 days ago

6/7 Indonesia - Bali Babes pt. 1🥂💗🌅 🌺 🍊 🐵 🌱 🪩

Canggu & Ubud - offering two very different types of healing 🤭

#bali #backpacking #seasiatravel #backpackingadventures #travelling by @leahainess

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11 days ago

Dear Mum.. Month 9 🌊

A sea of change, a wave of emotions, this one’s for all those who know what it feels like to leave home

To those that paved the way before us, when we were unwelcome and discriminated against on foreign shores ☘️

And to those paving their own way now, on behalf of their race and nationalities

Education (not mainstream propaganda designed to fuel hate) is the only way to prevent fear and create communities built on understanding

Your government in charge and the billionaire lobbies they support, are the only people you should be directing your anger towards

The house I grew up in is older than the USA, Australia, and Israel - I think it’s high time we all agreed, we are all the ancestors of immigrants

Life is a short and fickle thing - be kind 🤍

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat
Burn an grá I goncaí

🫶🏻

#griefjourney #movingtoaustralia #movingabroad #motherloss #grief taken in Darwin, Northern Territory by @leahainess

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a month ago

5/7 - The Philippines 🩵😭🥲🌊

120 seconds of 30 of the most lived and loved days of my entire life ever ever ever 🫶🏻

We were mooovinggg ✈️ ⛴️ 🛵🚁🛺 🚌

Intense travel, incredible adventures, beautiful people and out of this world sunsets & scenery, I would relive every day again & again & again

Special shout out to @_meganellisx & @maxbroomby for physically carrying me through 🛵 , to everyone for their never ending spiritual and emotional support, and to @niamh_finnerty for coming to visit me to join in on the chaos 🥹

(Port Barton, El Nido, Coron, Cebu, Maolboal, Siquijor, Siargao)

#thephilippines #seasiatravel #backpacking #solotraveling #travelling taken in Philippines by @leahainess

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a month ago

Dear Mum, month 8 🇦🇺

Late to the mark on this one but..

Completed my travels, landed in Australia, feeling like so many different versions of my self all at once. The old, the new, the constant. Reflecting on the most incredible journey through Asia, words failing to articulate the experiences that are now memories. Can we hold on to them forever? 🥹

Movement and motion, in a constant state of flux. Finding my feet on new solid ground..

Hoping she’s right here with me 😭🫶🏻 The wild grief rollacoaster continues..

#griefjourney #poetry #griefandloss #mumgrief #motherlessdaughters taken in Australia, Darwin, Northern Territory. by @leahainess

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2 months ago

4/7 🇲🇾 Malaysian monuments 🛕🌞🌴🚠🌇🥩⚱️🎏🏮🎤

Swipe to see just how much I loved KL 🥲

(Langkawi & Kuala Lumper) by @leahainess

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2 months ago

(3/7 🇹🇭) Thigh- land !! 🐒🦆🐠🦎🌺🥭🥢🏝️🚤

90 seconds of 4 weeks in 7 places (city, jungle, beach) with countless beautiful people (and 1 bestie @imogenoa)

Not shown: mango sticky rice x100, incredible snorkelling expeditions, one hospital visit 🙃, monkey invasions, 7 different modes of transport, epic thunderstorms & 9875 different creature finds

A glorious time xx

(Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Koh Tao, Khao Sok, Khao Sok National Park, Krabi, Koh Lanta, Koh Lipe)

#thailand #seasia #backpacking #thailandtravel #bangkok taken in Thailand by @leahainess

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3 months ago

Dear Mum.. Month 7 🌺

7 whole months, the number feels so short yet a lifetime all at once all. If the month before I was angry, this month I’m totally delusional, by what’s going on in this world and all of what we’re told about the next. Having to trust she’s at peace, wherever she may be.. every emotion feeling more heightened than the next. The heartbreak, the love, the urgency, but mainly the sheer disbelief to whatthefuckisjusthappened that comes with coming out of fight or flight mode.

Grief has a funny way of putting everything and nothing into perspective.

The adventure continues 🥹 ✈️ 🌍

#poetry #griefandloss #griefjourney #solotravel #grief taken in Bali, Indonesia by @leahainess

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3 months ago

(2/7 🇰🇭) Cambodia - waaat! 🛕 🏝️

📸 highlights, april 2026 taken in Cambodia by @leahainess

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3 months ago

Dear Mum, Month 6 🌅

Frustrations, observations, realisations..

Month 6 hit hard, but what continues to amaze me is how uneducated we are about grief and how poorly grief is framed, discussed, and approached in society. The idea held by many that joy & happiness can’t exist alongside such pain & heartbreak, isolating human existence into one emotion or state at a time. This completely contradicts how we have evolved and how complex being human, truly is.

Grief never leaves, so we must ensure joy doesn’t either. Despite the guilt, and in spite of death. Heartbreak still appreciates a gorgeous sunset and happiness often turns to tears. There’s no single version of the truth but we must see all sides.

When the worst thing that could ever happen, has happened, and you’re left with the trauma of anticipatory grief alongside the constant longing to have them near, and you remain standing each day, showing up, genuinely laughing and dare I say allowing yourself to feel positive with the heaviest of hearts - because of the people & places & experiences you’ve worked so hard to surround yourself with - that’s grieving too. And that’s worth celebrating - the depths of survival, a newfound confidence, a rebirth of everything you’ve ever known, an I ‘dare you to try me’ attitude.

So yes the tears will flow, and the waves will keep crashing, but you MUST keep dancing.

Living for two. On we go, so grateful to do so 🌎

#griefandloss #griefjourney #DearMum #reflections #poetryinmotion by @leahainess

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4 months ago