Gabby’s gone, how did this happen?
By Nichole Schmidt Grief is not a straight path. It is a storm that comes in waves, sometimes gentle, other times strong enough to knock you to your knees. In those first weeks, I barely functioned. I went through the motions, but inside, I felt empty. My other children needed me, my spouse needed me, but I felt like I had nothing left to give. I wanted to hide from the world, to drown in sorrow, but I couldn’t. Grief doesn’t go away, but life doesn’t stop either. Finding a way forward is not easy, and it never will be, but it is possible.
There are no words strong enough to describe the pain of losing a child, especially to something as cruel and preventable as domestic violence. It is a grief so deep, so consuming, that some days it feels impossible to move forward. The moment I learned my child was gone, my world shattered. How did this happen? Why our family? Why our daughter? I replayed every moment in my mind, searching for something I missed, something I could have done differently.
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