I've Lost a Child © 2005
by Georgia Burnette

To lose a child is like no other experience

It is unbelievable; how could this happen?

It is horrific, the shock of death incomprehensible

It is numbing; one is devoid of feeling. Indeed, one is afraid to feel!

Sleep can be elusive. How can I sleep?

Or constant, in an attempt to forget the awful truth

Grief can either be enabling or disabling, when it decides to enter your consciousness

It may approach on little cat feet, or come roaring in like an 800 pound gorilla

Grief may hold you hostage for years and years and years, it's never over in a flash

But you can't get over it, until you go through it.

When Death comes to call; it will steal your soul and alter your life, forever.

Georgia lost a son in 1966. Grieving came thirty years later, but was as devastating as the initial shock and horror of the first few days and months following his death at age 18.

Georgia Burnette is retired and lives in Amherst, NY.