Still Here
It’s strange, isn’t it?
How the world expects you to survive the unimaginable and return to it like nothing happened.
How your child can die, and people just… forget.
They expect you to move on.
To be “better.”
To show up the way you used to, like you’re not carrying a loss that cracked everything open.
But I’m not over it.
Because my Son died. And I’m still his Mom.
Because grief doesn’t expire.
Still, I wake up.
I get dressed.
I go to work. I answer emails.
I pretend I’m okay when I’m not.
And still, people judge.
They whisper. They criticize.
They roll their eyes when I miss a day or need space.
They decide my grief is too much.
They think they get to say how I should cope.
But strength isn’t silence.
Strength is waking up without your child and choosing to keep going.
It’s protecting your heart when others try to trample it.
It’s staying soft in a world that wants you hard.
I didn’t choose this life.
But I will not apologize for the way I survive it.
If that makes people uncomfortable, they don’t have to understand.
They can look away.
They can gossip.
They can go.
I’m still here.
Still grieving.
Still loving him.
Still standing.
xx
