Children's book author Benji Bennett has three kids - Harry, Robbie and Molly - with his wife, Jackie. The loss of their four-year-old son Adam in 2007 inspired him to write the Adam's series of books, the message of which is 'bringing families closer'
Book Benji to Visit Your SchoolFor as long as I can remember I have always loved the wonder, beauty and pure magic within children. It was only when I had my own children that I truly realised the full strength and power of that love.
Soon after I married my amazing wife, Jackie we were blessed with three beautiful children Harry, Adam and Robbie.
Like every family, life was busy balancing work and kids. I enjoyed working as a Marketing Manager in a Telecommunications company in Dublin and always knew how important it was to spend precious time with my family at weekends. As these weekends went by we all noticed that our happiest times were spend outdoors doing simple things like going for walks in parks, the woods and mountains or just hanging out by the beach.
Simply watching my kids enjoy the freedom to run around, explore and play in nature always inspired me as I appreciated every moment we spent together as a family.
Despite meticulous planning the night before with coats, hats, gloves, baby wipes, wellies and buggies all at the ready, we were never really sure exactly what the day would have in store.
Excited giggles in anticipation of where we might go, extended into laughter, adventure and fun and this was as infectious as it was unpredictable.
But once we were together we were filled with love and happiness. Our energetic days always guaranteed a goodnights sleep, after a memorable chat about our day and a magical bedtime story filled with love, hugs and kisses. Life was perfect in our happy family bubble.
On the 13th of August 2007 the unimaginable happened when our gorgeous beautiful boy Adam died suddenly and without warning from an undiagnosed brain tumour at the age of just 4 years old.
At the very moment when Adam’s heart took its last beat and we were told he was gone, I kissed him a kiss, hugged him a hug that I knew had to last for eternity.
Never could I have imagined how important those precious weekends we shared with Adam would prove to be in helping us rebuild our lives from the devastation of losing what seemed like everything.
Grateful to have packed a lifetime of love and happy memories into his four short years I immediately felt an overwhelming need to remind parents of the importance of spending time with their children and telling them they love them every day. Enlightened by the knowledge that time spent together creates something within a family that can never be explained, broken or taken away I began to write.
The more I wrote the more my tears blurred the page and the more I was inspired to create a unique, loving and happy reading experience for parents to share with their children at the end of each day. The simple idea that a child would go on an adventure with mum or dad and be told they are loved each night because of Adam helped me come to terms with why he had to go.
In the months after losing Adam I established Adam’s Cloud in his memory and one year to the day after we lost Adam, I published ‘Before You Sleep’ which instantly won the hearts of the nation. Blessed with the birth of our beautiful daughter Molly the previous month, we knew that we were fighting a good fight and Adam was watching over us. We had hope for the long hard journey ahead.
Since the publication of ‘Before You Sleep’ life has been filled with extraordinary and often conflicting emotions as we celebrate Adam, his message and the love in our family. With nine books now published, two Irish Book Awards, and the incredible support, encouragement and love I have received from the millions of readers all around the world, I have reason to be very grateful.
The importance of family time, shared reading and the positive influence nature has on family happiness is the essence of Adam’s message of Read, Walk, Love. It is this philosophy in action that inspires my books and has helped me rebuild wonderful happiness both for me and my family and help overcome our loss. It is my hope to connect with new parents of babies and young children to help them develop positive habits in the early years. To help instil happiness and resilience in their children and build a powerful, emotional and unbreakable bond with them for life.
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