The last two weeks literally took my breath away.
When you are missing your child immensely already, having the holidays invade your grief makes everything feel so much more intensely heavier.
We muddled our way through tears and heartache and lit Jaidon’s menorah in his memory.
In his honor we bought a set of legos that we thought he would have enjoyed and gave them to someone very special to him. A boy that he used to drive home from school every day who was a lot like him. We were glad to do this as we know this boy is missing him too, but emphasized even more so his absence and how much he is missed and what an impact he had in ways we didn’t know.
I was glad to survive eight soul crushing days of feeling the hole he left and tried to take pleasure in watching the girls celebrate Hannukah and Laylie’s sixteenth birthday.
I’m not going to lie though. All of this was a walk in the park compared to the crushing news we received last week that a dear friend of Jaidon’s had lost their battle with depression.
Another young life gone too soon, leaving nine kids where there used to be twelve.
I feel honored that I got to know this young adult even if only in a small way because their life left a huge impact on my entire family. They were in and out of our house since Jaidon passed and and became close with Kyra and was always loving towards the girls and us.
I am trying to find solace that the three kids are now together. But they should be here.
2021 cannot come to a close soon enough for me.
To anyone out there that needs to hear this, you are not alone, you are loved, even if things feel impossible there are always options, so reach out, even if you don’t want to. You have nothing to lose. We are here for you, anytime, for any reason, always.