Jess Redden has paid tribute to her late father after passing her pharmacy exams.
The 28-year-old, who married Irish rugby star Rob Kearney in December, sadly lost her dad Brian to cancer in September 2020.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday morning, the model shared a touching poem dedicated to her father after getting the results back from her recent exams.
View this post on Instagram
She wrote: “Today I got good news that I’ve long been dreaming of, but all I can help thinking is do they hear it up above?”
“I like to think they can and that they’re with you all along, they’ll still celebrate your successes even though they’re gone.”
“Even when you achieve your dreams it’s okay to still be sad, I hope that you are proud of me wherever you are dad.”
Jess then shared a throwback snap of herself and her dad at her first graduation in UCD.
She wrote: “Loved this graduation photo from my UCD days. Passed my final exam. Officially a Pharmacist!”
In a video, Jess spoke about how delighted she was about passing the exams, but admitted it was bittersweet as she is missing her dad.
She explained: “I feel like this is the day that I have been dreaming of since starting the course five years ago because I remember all the lecturers and the graduates saying you work towards this big exam at the end of the five years.”
“And in hindsight, it was a really difficult exam and I came out of it and I thought, ‘I could have said this,’ or, ‘I could have done this better’. So I’ve just been dreaming about it every night what I could have done but over the last while I have definitely changed my mindset, especially towards situations like that.”
“Instead of thinking negative thoughts trying to think positive and focus on all of the things that did go well. So I got my results and obviously, initially I was so delighted to be finished but then I have just been feeling just a bit funny today which is to be expected.”
“I feel all of the firsts are difficult, you long for the person you miss to be there to share the news. Dad was always my biggest supporter and I’m sure he still is,” Jess continued.
“But I suppose I put that message out there because I know a lot of other people are in the same situation and things like weddings or passing your exams can be difficult.”
