Tragically my husband Luther and I lost our two oldest sons, Drew, age eighteen, and Jeremiah, age fifteen, in an automobile accident on July 23, 1992. Our third son Jordan was only eleven years old. Without warning, we went from a family of five to a shell of three. How were we going to survive?
Two weeks after our sons died, I received a grief workbook from a woman I did not know, Dinah Taylor. She and her husband had lost their only child, Jim, one year before. Knowing she was still standing after one year became my lifeline.
Why was I still alive while my sons were dead? Could I begin to heal by reaching out to other bereaved parents? That thought led me to call the first of what has been over five thousand families to try to help them cope with the immense pain of losing a child. Through authoring the book Children of the Dome, I was able to share the journeys of some of these remarkable families. Each new family I contacted received a bereavement packet comprised of my book, a CD by Cindy Bullens and writings collected over a period of years.
After seeing Big Mama win the Academy Award for Documentary Short in 2001, I had a revelation. I would film a documentary on a subject no one had ever explored, the loss of a child and how a great loss has the potential to become a transformational force in our lives.
Space Between Breaths