Writer Emma Heatherington: ‘When Mummy died, everything took a back seat’

The bestselling author grew up overnight when her mother died, leaving her to help care for five siblings, including a baby. Here she talks about she coped

Bestselling author Emma Heatherington. Photo: Mark Condren

Saoirse Hanley

At the beginning of Emma Heatherington’s latest novel, a character tells the protagonist “life can change in the blink of an eye”. It certainly did for the person who wrote it. Emma’s mother died very suddenly of a heart attack when she was just 15.

Overnight, she went from being the eldest child of two doting parents to a de facto mother to five siblings, one of whom was only eight months old.