I am so sorry. This should never have happened. This is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
But you are still upright. That’s the completely surprising thing. Whenever you had imagined losing a child - and every parent of even the most healthy child puts themselves through that exercise if for just the most fleeting second - you imagined yourself flat on your back, completely unable to function.
Today you find yourself stronger than you had ever imagined you could possibly be.
Today you are astounded by how much you are loved, and how much your child was loved. You are discovering that your child changed the lives of people that you never knew. Disregard the length of your child’s life; he or she matters eternally.
Today you discover that you are an amazing parent who many have looked up to from afar. Today you understand just how much you and every member of your extended family matter to each other.
Today you are face to face with your own limits. You would have given your very life to stall this day. But this day is.
Today you take comfort, perhaps, in familiar rituals but encounter an incarnate God in a completely new way. It is God’s spirit in the long distance plane ticket purchased; the Spirit’s presence in the casserole delivered; Eternity hinted at in the flowers.
Today is the seed of the challenge to move forward. Maybe it is the responsibility to move forward.
Today is the beginning of something brand new. There is pain in it. Absolutely. But somewhere, buried deep… is hope.
