Sorry, missed the notification on this, but here’s a virtual hug for you: 🫂

Hopefully you got some in-person hugs as well

Note that like the 5 Stages of Grief that you’ve probably head of, this is an oversimplistic model. The reality involves a lot of bouncing between each of these at various times to various degrees. This book explains the process from the perspective of neuroscience and talks about a better model:

The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss

And this book talks about it more from a social perspective:

It’s Ok that You’re Not Ok

Sorry to hear about your loss. Feel free to talk as much or as little about your son here as you’d like. Finding community where I can share grief has helped me, hopefully finding out about this will help you too.

Here’s a poem that comforted me. Maybe you’ll get something out of it:

My little man,

down what centuries of light did you travel to reach us here,

your stay so short-lived;

In the twinkling of an eye you were moving on,

bearing our name and a splinter of the human cross we suffer;

flashed upon us like a beacon,

we wait in darkness for that light to come round,

knowing at heart you shine forever for us

- Hugh O’Donnell