Octopus Legacy

21/05/2026

“We chose to have our children young. We grew up with them then.”

Brian had his first child at 22. His granddaughter Erin, who’s in her 20s, asks if he’d do it the same again. He would - not just because it was the norm, but because he thinks it helped him as a parent.

What age did you have your first? Or what age do you think you will?

16/05/2026

You wouldn’t think a film about talking sheep solving a mystery would make you cry. But The Sheep Detectives does. And people are saying it gets grief in a way most films don’t.

So, why? Director Kyle Balda lost his mum at 23 and said he never properly grieved her, until years later. He read this script about sheep solving the mystery of what happened to their shepherd and recognised how he felt in it. That’s what the film is really about.

Maybe give it a try this weekend.

15/05/2026

This Mental Health Awareness Week, remember that grief doesn’t stop after the funeral. Sometimes it’s coming home to an empty house that’s the trickiest part.

Roger’s wife Jeanette passed suddenly. They’d been married for 35 years.

Keep checking in on the people you love who are grieving, even if it’s months or years down the line. A text, a phone call, or even asking them to share a memory about the person they’ve lost can make a big difference.

08/05/2026

Sir David Attenborough turns 100 today.

His legacy is unlike anyone else’s on Earth. He joined the BBC as a trainee in 1952. He introduced colour television. His 1979 series Life on Earth reached 500 million people, about 1 in 9 humans alive at the time. His 2017 series Blue Planet II changed European plastic law within two years. And he’s still answering 70 letters of fan mail a day, by hand.

Happy Birthday, Sir David.

03/05/2026

It was 2006, at the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada. Stanley Tucci and his wife Kate got chatting to Felicity Blunt, sister of Stanley’s co-star Emily.

Three years later, Kate died of breast cancer. Years after that, Stanley reconnected with Felicity, and they married. And now The Devil Wears Prada cast are family.

He still has the photo from the night his two wives met.

02/05/2026

The Devil Wears Prada star Meryl Streep got her 1st of 21 Oscar nominations for The Deer Hunter: a film she took to be near the man she loved, acclaimed actor John Cazale, who was dying.

Two film legends, only together for two years.

29/04/2026

Ask your kids to describe themselves in one word. Bet you won’t get unicorn and cushion 🦄

26/04/2026

25/04/2026

Running won’t get rid of grief, but it can help with it.

If you’ve ever run through grief, you already know.

Has running helped you? Or have you found something else that did?

17/04/2026

What do you think of death doulas? And would you want Nicole Kidman to be yours?