A few months after Mason died, I received an email from a close friend asking for our prayers. Her father had been fighting cancer for several years and was going through a particularly rough patch. When we heard back from her a few days later, her dad was greatly improved and she wanted to thankContinue reading “Prayer”
Author Archives: Susan Jackson
But tonight, I cry
Whenever emotions threaten to overwhelm me, once the crying has finally subsided, I’m able to remember that I’m in good company. I pray for the mothers who have come before me who have lost a child and I cry for the mothers who are unaware that this kind of suffering awaits them, patiently. How blessedContinue reading “But tonight, I cry”
Parallel worlds
‘My world was whole. I was fortunate, whether I always realized it or not. Good days dominated. In fact, I didn’t know what a bad day was, I thought I did, but I didn’t. When my son died, my world imploded. As one world faded, another one took its place and in this newly emergingContinue reading “Parallel worlds”
Seeing the light
Mason was in the hospital for 3 weeks. His condition was critical from day one and each subsequent day brought another life-threatening crisis to bear; liver failure, kidney failure, gram negative sepsis, endocarditis, internal bleeding, acute respiratory distress syndrome, three pneumothoraces, hypoxia, and stroke. Each one of these on its own was serious and potentiallyContinue reading “Seeing the light”
Then and now
Mason and Taylor were married on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean just south of Big Sur. Steve and I stayed at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn which sits on a canyon below a mountain that threatens to slide and take the inn with it. It’s one of our favorite places in theContinue reading “Then and now”
Soul survivor
It wasn’t that long ago when I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and think it couldn’t have happened. My son couldn’t have died, it’s not possible, it’s all been a terrible mistake. Please, tell me it’s not real. But it was real and it did happen. ItContinue reading “Soul survivor”
The new paradigm
What follows are short pieces that I wrote at various times on the grieving path. They were attempts to understand the world in which I now lived and a life I could no longer recognize. We have become citizens of a new world. One night, during our sleep, we were evicted from the world thatContinue reading “The new paradigm”
When people say the wrong thing
Most people, upon hearing of your loss, are themselves at a loss. They have no idea what the right thing to say is. If you’re among the thoughtfully enlightened, you may hear ‘I’m so sorry for your loss’. Nothing else is more healing than those few words spoken from the heart. Other people, when confrontedContinue reading “When people say the wrong thing”
When the “what ifs” come
What if… What if I had … What if I hadn’t … What if I had seen … What if I had known … What if I hadn’t let him drive? What if I hadn’t let him go to the lake? What if I had been more strict? What if I had listened better? WhatContinue reading “When the “what ifs” come”
Answering the hard questions
Invariably the moment comes when you are at the grocery store or a restaurant or a meeting and you see someone you haven’t seen for a while who doesn’t know about the loss of your child. You exchange pleasantries in hopes that the conversation doesn’t ‘go there’. But it’s never that easy. She asks ‘HowContinue reading “Answering the hard questions”
The Grieving Path 