Suffering A Loss & Rising Strong
“I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
— ROBERT FROST.
HADLEY WAS WITH US FOR SIX DAYS.
Six days longer than we were expecting given her CDH diagnosis was compounded by her arrival at 25 weeks and 1 lb. 8 oz. We soaked up every single minute of it. We laughed, we cried, we hoped, we prayed, we dreamed, and when she passed peacefully in our arms, we were crushed. In the time since, there’s literally not a single emotion we haven’t felt: aimlessly lost, cheated, isolated, cursed, and good old fashioned rage, just to name a few.
However, through it all, even on the darkest of days when the light seems forever extinguished, she has always been there to remind us that hope springs eternal. That somewhere, holding onto the smallest of ledges by only a couple of fingernails, you’ll find the strength needed to overcome and persevere.
Often misconstrued but read in its entirety, “The Road Not Taken” is not meant to be a tribute to independence, going against the grain, or doing something others have not. Rather it’s an homage to the belief that life is not defined or created by choosing one path or the other at a given moment, but instead, life is the story you’re able to tell years down the road.
THE STORY OF YOUR CHILD DOES NOT END WITH THEIR PASSING, LIKE OUR SWEET HADLEY KATE’S, IT CAN SIMPLY BE THE BEGINNING.
It’s a series of divergent paths and choices, but always and forever moving forward. Our story will never be your story, your path never ours, and hopefully, none of us will ever be at this particular crossroads again. But know that your story and your child’s story does not end with their passing, like our sweet Hadley Kate’s, it can simply be the beginning.
Our Love and Absolute Best,
Katie, Ryan, Hadley, and the entire Fore Hadley Foundation
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