Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward after Loss and Heartache

by Granger Smith

Our drive home from the hospital was long, slow, and mostly silent. Amber and I knew that our kids would be there waiting for us, so we spent most of the time trying to figure out how we would explain what had just happened. Honestly, how do we tell a seven-year-old and five-year-old that their brother wasn’t coming home? Ever. London and Lincoln were expecting three of us to show up. In their minds, their little brother was still alive, and every mile we traveled was another minute they were given to believe it was so. The hospital had a grief counseling team that spoke with us often during our less than sixty hours in the PICU. One thing they were adamant about was that we tell our two living children that River had died. Not to attempt to soften it with words like he was sleeping, resting, in a better place, or any other analogy that pandered to their emotions or possibly led them to the conclusion that they