Eleven Years and One Day Later

I didn't feel like writing anything about Sam yesterday, but then a friend sent me the link to a wonderful story on Huffington Post where a woman shared her family's story of stillbirth. Her story was so astonishingly similar to mine and happened on Valentine's Day also. But what struck me the most from her story was how they have handled this tragedy and how they mark Valentine's Day each year. Jim and I have never been big fans of Valentine's Day -- even before we got married. It just seems such a contrived holiday to us. So, it wasn't a big stretch to switch from not liking the holiday to actively hating it and calling in Black Valentine's Day. After reading this story and after eleven years I think I am ready to change my view of this day. I'd like to start celebrating Valentine's Day -- as a celebration of Sam and of Emma and our family. Why not celebrate this day as Sam's birthday and remember him positively. It may be hard, but I think we are ready.

If you want to read the whole article you can find it here:
Our Family Love Story by Carissa K.

If you want to read a longer and extremely well written (even funny in places) personal account of stillbirth I highly recommend Elizabeth McCracken's book: An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination.

If you want to read more about our experience click on the label stillbirth for my other blog posts on this subject.