A Brief Life But One of Love

By: Anna Eastland I recently attended a celebration of life for a baby boy who lived for one month. His name was Matthew. He had the genetic defect Trisomy 18, so it was actually a miracle he lived that long. Before the funeral Mass, his mother, Maggie, got up and spoke in front of the…

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Baby Loss Photography: On Memory and Celebration

By: Anna Eastland Why did we take pictures of those we love? So that at another time in the future we may be present to them again as we were in that moment. Photographs allow us to transcend time. We are able to re-present that moment, to make it present again. Because of our spiritual…

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Why Ignoring Anniversaries Of Loss Doesn’t Work

By: Anna Eastland On March 30th, it was the six month anniversary of my  baby daughter Josephine’s stillbirth. I approached the day with a bit of dread, worried it would send me back and undo my recent period of emotional improvement. I tried to decide what to do…plan a trip with the kids to Science…

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Parched Grass

By: Anna Eastland It’s such a hot summer that I don’t know which flowers to bring you Everything dries up so fast gets parched and wrinkled in the heat and there’s enough death already in the graveyard There should be a stone at least shiny and beautiful at first with simple eloquent words in your…

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On Love, Loss and Having Babies

By: Anna Eastland It’s funny that what people so often emphasize about babies is how much work they are. How they will take over your life and make it difficult. How they should generally be avoided in order to live a life of comfort and success. But I can honestly say that the hardest thing…

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