Why did this happen to me?

Why did this happen to me? What have I done to deserve such pain? Why have I lost so much when others seem to be so blessed?

Such words are the cry of a wounded soul that has been intimately touched by grief. We call out asking "why" and we receive only silence for our answer.

Many well-meaning friends will tell us that it is better to have had the opportunity to love, if only for a brief time, than never to have felt the touch of our child that is now gone. That is cold comfort in the beginning days, weeks, and months of our grief when all we think about is having our child, we love, back with us once again.

Since that's not possible, there comes a time in our grief when we are able to reason out the thought that we have been blessed by the life of our child, we loved so much, and we are better because of it. We know we wouldn't trade one moment of that level of deep, undeniable love that we experienced for anything in the whole world.

When death knocks at our door, the journey back to life again is long, hard, and lonely. Death means that we once had someone in our lives that meant the world to us, and now that person, our child, is gone. But, healing comes as we understand that our child can never leave us.

Though our child has gone, the gift of love we've been given goes on and on, and that gift can never be taken away.

As saddened as I am by my daughter's death, I can lift up my heart in gratitude for the blessing of her love, that lives in my heart forever.