This incredible work of art is by me, a non-illustrator. If I could have stretched the arms to the edges of the universe, I would have. This is how much I still love my child. Until he died by suicide, I had no idea how much you could love someone that was no longer alive.
But that’s what grief is. The price you pay for having loved someone with all your heart.
I am an emotionally naked mental health speaker, and author of the Book, Diary of a Broken Mind and co-author with Kim O'Brien PhD, LICSW of Emotionally Naked: A Teacher's Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk. I raised two boys, Richard and Charles, and lost my younger son, Charles to addiction and suicide on June 5, 2015. I help people foster a culture of connection to prevent suicide, reduce substance misuse and find life after loss. My motivational mental health keynotes, training and workshop topics include suicide prevention, addiction, mental illness, anxiety, coping strategies/resilience, and grief.
As talented and funny as Charles was, letting other people know they matter was his greatest gift. And now the legacy I try and carry forward in my son's memory.
Mental Health Speakers Website. Trained in ASIST and trainer for the evidence-based 4-hour training for everyone called safeTALK.
View all posts by Anne Moss Rogers
2 thoughts on “Love you this much – #griefheart number 165”
This is beautiful and shows how much a mother’s love for her child is not unlike a child’s love. Pure, perfect, boundless, will do anything, everything to try and keep them happy.
And the loss is no different than a child losing their mother. A part of them is gone, their compass, their heart continues to beat and feel but it’s cracked and broken and always feels like something is missing.
The really sad part is when we lose someone we love to suicide due to depression/addiction and the like, it throws us into the very same state they were in. We suddenly feel everything they felt to our core, but we can’t take that way out. We have to stay and live and find a way to make sense of it all because we know they would never be ok with us doing that, it’s never the right thing to do, and our families, friends and even complete strangers need us.
Thank you Charles for sharing your amazing mom with us. I so wish you were still here to help her in her fight to save lives of the incredible people like you, my sister and so many others.
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This is beautiful and shows how much a mother’s love for her child is not unlike a child’s love. Pure, perfect, boundless, will do anything, everything to try and keep them happy.
And the loss is no different than a child losing their mother. A part of them is gone, their compass, their heart continues to beat and feel but it’s cracked and broken and always feels like something is missing.
The really sad part is when we lose someone we love to suicide due to depression/addiction and the like, it throws us into the very same state they were in. We suddenly feel everything they felt to our core, but we can’t take that way out. We have to stay and live and find a way to make sense of it all because we know they would never be ok with us doing that, it’s never the right thing to do, and our families, friends and even complete strangers need us.
Thank you Charles for sharing your amazing mom with us. I so wish you were still here to help her in her fight to save lives of the incredible people like you, my sister and so many others.
A beautiful comment and narrative Susan. So well said