Please Come

I should've done this post a long time ago so that you had time to hire a babysitter for next week.  Here's the story.  After my dear friends, Molly and Vic Jackson, lost their baby girl, Lucy, in a tragic accident in 2008, Molly became very public with her grief.  She found peace through the process of reaching out to others who also struggle with loss and grief.  It started with her family blog and then expanded to a new website, www.aGoodGrief.com, dedicated to helping others find hope and healing through making connections with others who have had similar experiences.  Through her website, Molly has been able to raise money for families who have lost children--money that goes toward the purchase of the child's headstone.  "Child" and "headstone" should never be used in the same sentence, but it is a horrible reality for too many parents.  

Molly has organized a benefit concert to raise money for these families.  She has used her grief as the fuel to come to the aid of others, which makes her a miracle worker.  I love the Jacksons, and so will you, so you should come and meet them on March 17th. Here is what Molly has to say about the concert.  Buy your tickets here.  And if you can't make it, buy a ticket anyway.  

Molly asked me to put together a slideshow of children who have passed away to be shown while she sings "Days of Plenty" from Little Women the Musical at the concert.  Parents from all over the country sent pictures of their precious babies and their headstones to Molly and I have been organizing them into the slideshow.  I have to say, this process has been intensely spiritual for me...and difficult.  I want every transition, every second to be perfect because I want to honor these children.  I look at their faces, so vibrant and full of life, and then their headstones, which seem so final, and I can't help but think of my Liam.  He is so present and HERE and sometimes I feel guilty that I cannot relate to Molly and Vic on the level I want to.  I love Liam as much as any human being could possibly love another.  Losing a child is unfathomable.  Unimaginable.  Impossible, and yet it happens.  If I didn't know that this life is not the end, that we will see our loved ones again, this slideshow process would send me into a downward spiral of depression and despair.  But I press on, for those who have experienced the impossible.  And I try to resist locking Liam in a accident-proof bubble for the rest of his life.  

The song is only a little over three minutes, so it will be impossible to include all of the pictures these families have sent.  Every time I am forced to make a decision to exclude a photo, it is agonizing because I feel like I'm deleting a memory; it's like by that one exclusion, I'm erasing one precious moment in time from history, like it never happened.  I want to show everyone every second of every life lost.  They mattered, and they always will, as the song goes.  

I hope to see you there.  There will be a ton of amazing talent, and I guarantee there will not be a dry-eye in the place when Molly sings. You just may see me do the ugly cry...with snot bubbles.  

Lucia Isabella Jackson

June 11, 2006- May 22, 2008