Grieving Heart

My heart is so heavy right now and I needed someone to share my feelings with so I chose you all, my wonderful blogging audience, to get all of my feelings out.


I am grieving today for a family and for a boy I hardly even know but who have really pulled on my heartstrings these last few months. It is a family that lives just a few blocks over from us. I met them when we first moved to the area and we went to a playgroup that this family had been invited to attend. I remember them well because we both had ties to Katy, Texas (where we had just moved from) and they had a little boy named Henry who was just a year older than Abigail (Henry was the name Abby would have been if she had been a boy, so I always seem to pay particular attention to boys named Henry for that reason.) They seemed like such a nice family and we all had a fun day of playing at Greenbrier State Park together.


A few months later, I found out from another neighbor that their little boy Henry had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. It is always so hard for me to hear that anyody has been given the diagnosis of cancer, but to hear that a child has developed it seems to be ten times worse for me. Perhaps because they are so young and have so much life yet to live that I find it particularly hard to imagine it being cut so short.


I have been following their blog the last few months and particurly during these last few weeks as Henry has steadily declined and the family (particularly the dad who is the author of their blog) has gone through this terrible grieving process. Each time I have read their blog entries, it makes me appreciate my own children and their health so much more.


Yesterday morning, little 4-year-old Henry took his last breath and passed from this life into the next with both of his parents by his side. I have been crying in grief for this family since I found out the news. In a way I feel kind of silly because I really hardly even know this family. But in another way, it makes perfect sense. We are all part of the same human family and I feel attached to them and grieve with them as I would with any parent who loses a precious child. My heart aches for them, but feel I grateful that little Henry can be spared the suffering that he has endured during these last final moments of his young life.


I don't want this post to be too depressing and sad because through the gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that there is so much joy to be had even in the passing of a loved one. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that life does go on after death...that death is merely a "see you later" and not a final goodbye. But my heart still aches for this little family that must now live out the remainder of their mortal journey without their precious son.


I'm not sure why I had the need to post about this. Perhaps because if it gives anybody else the opportunity to sit back and look at their own precious children with more love and affection than ever before (it has certainly done this for me), then maybe Henry's suffering and death will not have been in vain. So give your own little rugrats a great big kiss and hug and let them know just how special they really are.


(If anybody would like to read a bit more about their journey, their blog can be found here. WARNING: It will most certainly make you shed a few tears.)