The unimaginable

This was on the Facebook page for Luminous Light Studio. It was from someone named CarlyRae. Apparently, last Sunday was Bereaved Mother's Day-the week before regular Mother's Day. This is from a video that had words at the bottom that I copied down, so some of the punctuation, etc. might be off.

The Bereaved Mother
She has experienced the unimaginable
and yet somehow
she is still able to walk

When her child died
no matter what age or gestation they were
life as she knew it came to an end.
Her heart shattered into a million pieces
and she was irrevocably changed

She is left feeling isolated
as people become frightened to talk to her.
Even her friends and her family struggle to find words.

She feels like the elephant in the room.
The victim.
The heartbreaking story.
She is wounded with no idea how to heal herself.
There is a desperate yearning to get back
to the way things were meant to be
before her life was split into two worlds
of before and after.

There is pressure from the world to move on.
To get over it.
To be grateful.
She will be called strong a thousand times over
but in reality she feels anything but that.
The whys and what ifs can make her feel crazy.

The hurt she feels is so deep it often becomes almost unspeakable.
So how does she keep going?
How does she get out of bed and face each day?
Franchesca Cox says,
"A mother is not defined by the number of children you can see,
but by the love she holds in her heart."
This is where she finds her courage.
This is where she finds her strength.
It transcends space and time.
and with that love
she puts one foot in front of the other
and learns to carry her hurt and her healing together as one,
allowing both to exist
and transform into beauty and wonder
And that's why she will rise

So do not remain silent,
reach out to her.
Speak her child's name
and recognize her for the beautiful mother that she is.
Give her the grace to fall apart
To be upset. To be hurt and to be angry.
For she is learning to live without a piece of her heart.
And that takes an infinite amount of courage.
Do not be afraid of her tears
You are allowing her to release them and that is a true gift.
We Bereaved Mothers, we live not only for ourselves now.
We live for our children who are no longer here.
We carry them in our hearts.
And that is where we will keep them forever.