For our family, Father’s Day didn’t look like a Target ad; there was no barbecue on a shiny new grill, no whiskey glasses and leather chairs, no new TV and no new watch. 

Our Father’s Day celebration did include all of your Grandpas. 

It also included a trip to the cemetery. 

I picture your grandma walking with you around our property, embodying patience and grace as she watches you toddle around, stopping to explore and examine every. single. thing. 

I am a mother.

I am a daughter.

I am a mother who has lost her daughter and a daughter who has lost her mother. 

There’s no Hallmark card for this. 

Are there seasons in Heaven, Norah? Do you get to feel the heat of summer sun on your skin or be refreshed by a deep breath of crisp fall air? Do you get to make snow angels in the winter that provide a place for the first blades of springtime grass to peek through? 

Sometimes people think that a child born after loss helps to ease the pain, being a life to celebrate and carry forward. But our love and gratitude for the life of Lora stands side-by-side with the love and longing we carry for you. This is no different than any other family, really; having a second child doesn’t mean you love your first child any less – it simply means that your heart expands to hold both. That’s true for loss families as well, it just looks a little different.