Surviving the Death of a Child, Part Four

Part Four: Public Pain

Heaven was far from my mind.

All I could think about was earth—soil, dirt, and clay. Soon, part of us would be buried in the ground. Emily’s body had mixed with mine to make a new life. Joseph Bayly said it well: “In a way that is different from any other human relationship, a child is bone of his parents’ bone, flesh of their flesh.” This idea disturbed…