Podcasts provided comfort, as well as tears, as we listened to the stories of many others who had also lost a child.
The Sisters in Loss podcast was particularly helpful. Episode after episode not only illuminated the devastating realities of child loss, but also encouraged listeners that it was possible to make it through.
Each person’s story was unique. Each person’s healing journey looked different. Yet, there was a sense of connection with these people whom we had never met.
Some stories particularly resonated. For example, one story was from a woman who lost two children: her daughter was stillborn and, later, her son died at age three on the very same day that she gave birth to another son. Her raw testimony was packed with emotion and insight.
One of the key takeaways from this podcast interview was about the healing power of the words we speak to ourselves. In recounting her healing journey after the death of her daughter, she reflected:
“I kept being intentional about telling myself a different narrative…Whatever story I repeat to myself is the story that I’m going to live out loud. So [instead of telling myself] that I’m cursed…that nothing good will ever come from me trying to build or create a family…that her dying was my fault…, I started telling myself that I’m a survivor instead of a victim, that I have so much grace in my life, that I could go through what I was going through and still be trying to find my way out of that hole.”
Indeed, there is power in our words.
Another story that stood out was from a woman whose daughter died from SIDS. Even after losing her child and enduring other difficult struggles, which she describes in her book Love Remains, this woman was able to declare, “God is faithful…There is nothing in this world that He would allow to come into your life that He has not already…given you the strength to walk through.”
What a hopeful statement.
Podcast episodes like these allowed us to mourn both the speakers' losses and our own loss. There was healing and hope amidst the tears; these people had been through the worst trials in their lives and were still standing to tell their testimonies.