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Losing a Child: Always Andy's Mom


As a pediatrician, married mom of three biological children and one foster son, my life was busy, rushing off to my office four days a week, seeing patients for three and working as a medical director of a local physician organization for one. I balanced this with rushing off to shuttle my kids to after sports and other after school activities. All of this changed one day in August of 2018 when my 14 year old son, Andy, was killed in a car accident. I felt like my life was over, and in some ways it was over, and a new life was forced to begin in its place. 

Grief is seldom discussed openly in our culture, and the death of a child makes people feel even more uncomfortable. On this blog and podcast, ‘Losing a Child: Always Andy’s Mom’, the topic is approached openly and honestly, speaking to people who have lost loved ones and experts who help care for them. Whether you are a parent experiencing loss or someone who wants to support another going through this tragedy, this blog and podcast strives to offer hope and help.

Jan 22, 2026

In this episode of Always Andy’s Mom, Luna returns for a new conversation—one shaped by time, lived experience, and the quiet ways grief continues to unfold.

Years ago, Luna signed a letter to her son Hunter with words that have stayed with me since reading her book, Look Mom, I Can Fly. She signed it:

Love,
Your devastated, aching, flailing, vulnerable, wrecked,
and resilient Mama.

Those words hold so much of what it means to live after the loss of a child.

When Luna first joined the podcast, she was only weeks into her grief after Hunter died suddenly while he was sleeping. Even then, she carried a rare clarity—an understanding that grief does not need to be fixed, rushed, or hidden.

Now, five years later, we talk about how grief lives in the body, how healing asks us to listen differently, and how moments of peace sometimes arrive quietly, without explanation. Luna shares how she honors her emotions as they come and how love continues to show itself through small signs and deep presence.

Luna closes the episode by reading her poem “Signs,” from her book Look Mom, I Can Fly, written from Hunter’s perspective. It is tender, powerful, and filled with the kind of love that does not end.

This episode is a reminder that grief is full of contradictions—that we can be devastated and resilient, wrecked and still growing.

Some things remain.
Some things grow.
Both can be true.