Grief: Finding the Eye in the Storm

Grief is turbulent, unpredictable, and chaotic like a violent storm. When you are consumed in it, where do you find peace? A mother who lost her newborn daughter just hours after birth shares where she found her peace in a story written for the Buffalo News. Andrea Burtis learned her daughter would die when she was only 17 weeks pregnant. She hoped for a miracle and planned for her daughters death with the help of Caring Hearts Perinatal Hospice in Buffalo, NY. Her daughter, Isabel, was born on May 18, 2008 at 11:07 p.m. She died just short of two hours later at 1:05 a.m.

Andrea explains her grief:

The curtain of grief was drawn when we were told she had passed. At the same time, we clearly saw how much we had lost and how much we had gained in the past few months.

To talk about Isabel is to tell a story of seeming paradoxes. Our experience strengthened and humbled us. Our lives were shattered and yet made whole. There is a peaceful center in the eye of grief. It is only by going through the most turbulent part of the storm that one can find that place, though.

Learn more about how perinatal hospice can help families facing the death of their unborn child.

The Littlest of Patients: Perinatal Hospice

Perinatalhospice.org

Be Not Afraid

Thanks to my friends on the perinatal hospice yahoo group for bringing this story to my attention.