1.15.2013

Gone Girl

There’s not protocol to follow when your baby dies.  A year ago we sat around the room, all of us who had spent so many middles of the night with her.  We took turns holding her body, even though the little girl in her was gone.  We whispered in her ear, stroked her cheeks, snipped her hair.

There's no good way to mark the date of your child's death.  Tonight we huddled around a table, a few of the people who loved her most, a small fraction of the folks who must have been thinking about her today.  We ate and drank and toasted and shed tears.

She is gone, and so with her, some of us.  Not us entirely, but the part of us that left the room with her last year.
We appreciate your messages and your shared memories, we appreciate you remembering her today.  Thank you.  
And please, bring her up again later too, because fear of her being forgotten feels somehow worse than living through her death.
JEB 

2 comments:

McKenna said...

Thinking of you and your family and remembering all you have shared about her.

Susan said...

Jenni and Andy, Celia will never be forgotten. The joy, the life, the energy, the blessings that she brought to you, to Jan and Tim, to your parents, to the entire family, even those of us who are so far away will never be gone and will never be forgotten. Her blessing to all of us will continue to infuse our lives every moment we see and hold our children, every moment we walk past the picture of our year old babies, every moment we think of family, every time we see a red haired angel. We love you.