Thanksgiving Onesies

By: Ann-Marie Ferry Brilliant sunbeams awaken my eyes. It is a beautiful May day and I have a mission. The night before I scoured the local papers and the internet for garage sale’s advertising baby cloths. Coffee and cash in hand I charge (waddle) out the front door and into my petite Ford Focus.  My…

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Like He Never Existed

By: Chrissy I don’t pay much attention to social media or celebrity news, but it was hard to avoid hearing  that Chrissy Teigen had lost her precious baby boy, Jack. It seemed like everyone was talking about it in the loss community. Being the average human that I am, I of course couldn’t then resist…

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Kindred Strangers

By: Ann-Marie Ferry I never saw it coming. Tear soaked face. Thrown together carry-on. Royal blue, malodorous, Grey’s Anatomy scrubs. I must have been a sight that day. Sitting among strangers, waiting for the plane, I prayed, “Lord, I need an everyday miracle. Please sit me next to another Christian I can pray with during…

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Your Love Is Legendary

By: Ann-Marie Ferry Mother Bear first noticed the faint smell of smoke that morning as she wandered about her home of skyward reaching trees, brambles, berries, and trickling streams. She paid it no heed. Her two cubs wrestled about in the underbrush, ear gnawing, rollie pollies that would jump to a battling bear stance at…

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The Deep Roots of Legacy

By: Ann-Marie Ferry “Tough it out.” “Don’t cry.” Don’t be a girl.” We have been told for years that to show pain, or to speak of it, is weakness. We are the children of stoicism. The American roots run deep into this ancient philosophy. At the heart we know something is wrong with it but…

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Missing More Than Milestones

By: Kayla Leibner I often find myself wondering what life would be like if I wasn’t a bereaved mother.  I wonder how different I would be if I wasn’t on this path.  The truth is, this is my reality, and I’ll never again know life the way it was before this journey of grief began. …

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Milestones

By: Rebecca Stockwell A close friend had a baby a few weeks before my son was born. We live a few hours from each other, so I wasn’t around for most of her milestones. When she was seven months old, we were invited to her baptism and to spend the night at her house. We don’t…

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Sailing

By: Ann-Marie Ferry Twenty-five feet of crystal-clear water rolled between the pier where I stood and the smooth, colorful boulders on the lake floor. I was enchanted by this simmering window into aquatic life, mesmerized, in my own world. “Ann-Marie, the line is moving,” a voice called out. My parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents,…

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An Artistic Walk Through Grief

By: Ann-Marie Ferry The suddenness of grief is disorienting. It leaves us grappling for a way, a path to walk. We as bereaved parents had no choice. Grief came and we did our best. We kept waking up. We kept on. Our paths all look a little different, but the emotions often feel so familiar.…

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