Darkest hour… For years I lamented about how I never got to say goodbye to Alyssa. Our family had been together just hours before celebrating my niece Alana’s 12th birthday. And although it never registered until just now, in a…
When I laugh, I laugh in my mother tongue; When I cry, I cry in my mother tongue; When I scream my pain, I do so in my mother tongue; When I speak with the spirits, I do so in…
July 30th marked the ninth anniversary of my son David’s death. Since that day, I have been mourning his loss. I am not being morbid or hyperbolic; just descriptive, stating a fact. I suffer Perpetual Sorrow Syndrome, the unquenchable yearning…
In 1968 in England, two young boys, Kenneth Lawley and Billy Henderson, died in a hospital, one dear lad from disease and the other youngster from a motor vehicle accident. About ten years earlier, a teenager named Simon Stephens had…
On December 6, 2009, my precious daughter, Mandy, at the age of 23, died in her sleep of unknown causes. It’s been over three years now, and as I visit the cemetery, to decorate for every season, or visit her…
The black granite marker said it all: Scott Preston Horsley II, 1965–1983. It was simple, dignified, and solid. Just like our son whose grave it marked. His life was erased a few minutes before Easter when the car he was…
Our son Jim died five years ago of a heroin overdose at the age of 21. It was a total body blow for us. Although he had messed around with cannabis when he was 16 or 17, we believed he…
The death of a child is unlike any other loss in human experience; it breaks all the rules. In the aftermath of a child’s death, parents often experience surprising, unsettling reactions such as flashbacks, anxiety attacks, or recurring nightmares. Unbeknownst…
It was a cloudy afternoon in January, a warm Texas 70 degrees— five years, five months, and seven days after my beautiful son Brandon made his transition to heaven. He was 17 and taken by a sudden and ultimately unexplained…
Eight years ago, David and I lost our 13-year-old son, Eric, to Ewing’s sarcoma bone cancer. He battled this horrible disease for 16 months. For the next four years, I had my own battles dealing with my loss-until I was…
