“I know without a doubt my baby brother Mark put us together to save my life.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘Right away I knew something was wrong. When the officer told us that he’s so sorry, but Mark died in a car accident, I completely lost it.’
By Eliza Murphy -
‘The other day I read I was a victim. Because my son died, I am considered a victim. I threw the book away.’
“I never thought I would laugh again. I didn’t deserve it. I lost a child. I had no right to be happy.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘I was 32 years old with a dead husband. I wanted to – needed to – feel in control. I worried people would think I was ‘over’ my loss. I wasn’t.’
“I couldn’t control my husband dying unexpectedly, but I could control this ending.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘My husband and I arrived at the hospital to await our baby’s arrival. I had no idea the very bed I was settling in would soon become my death bed.’
“I became frantic. Something terrible was happening. I told my husband to find help immediately. He needed to prepare himself that he may leave the hospital with a baby, but not his wife.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘To some, Maddie was just a junkie — when they saw her addiction, they stopped seeing her. And what a loss for them.’
“Though we would have paid any ransom to have her back, any price in the world, this disease would not let her go until she was gone.”
By LJ Herman -
‘Hi Mom, I’m home, wake me up for school at 9, ok? I love you.’ I looked right at him. ‘I love you too, Alex. Get some sleep, it’s late.’ Off to bed we both went.
“When I went to wake him for school, the moment I saw him and touched his arm, I knew he was gone.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘We’d finally decided to tie the knot. One year and 6 days later, he was dead. There were no warning signs, just a phone call telling me my husband – who I’d spoken to only hours ago – had died.’
“There was no accident, no cancer diagnosis, nothing amiss beyond what the doctors said was the flu.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘He woke up in silence and called my name. It was his way of saying ‘goodbye.’ I made my way through the IV’s and monitors and laid next to my husband in the hospital bed.’
“When he was admitted into the hospital, I wanted to be there in the middle of the night if he needed me. One night, he did.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘My son died at the age of 26. He smoked a joint laced with heroin and died in his sleep. He had a college class that morning. He had his clothes washed and ready for work that evening.’
“After Alex passed away, I started putting together puzzles. Putting them together was putting me together. Like I had repaired it, as if it was broken.”
By Eliza Murphy -
There is no ‘how to become a widow’ class. Before he died, I never thought about what his first pet’s name was to look up my bank account balance.
“There was NO way I was having a discussion with him about the things I should know before he dies because there was NO way I was going to make him feel like I was planning his death.”
By Eliza Murphy -
