Flowers, trees filling in with new leaves, great smells—love all of it! The new life it symbolizes is refreshing and renewing. Nothing ever stays the same.

Nothing ever stays the same. That kind of says it all, right? We have our lives heading in one direction, and whoosh we are spinning around, and heading the opposite way. Most of the time we aren’t really certain what hit us.

That is what happens when a child dies. We have a beautiful, happy family, then the bottom drops out. The moment it happens we are catapulted into chaos and shock. Nothing will ever be right again … or at least not the same.

Grief becomes our life. For a while we stumble along like we are in a dark cave, and then, little by little, light comes in. For moments we are released from the heart gripping, breath taking grief, but then we stumble again.

Spring is coming. We find ourselves looking at our “new normal “ like a child looking at the beauty of a Cherry tree in full bloom. We can actually breathe again. Our beautiful child is still with us, and we begin to live as a new person with a new purpose.

Nothing will ever be like it once was, but what we now are, and what we now have is our life—full of purpose, and yes joy. We are here to walk through the door with new grieving parents, grandparents, and siblings. To hold them up when they fall. To watch them walk their path, to laugh and cry. To get to know their beautiful child, to share our hearts.

I never thought spring would come again, but it is here, and so is Mandy.