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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.

Nov 18, 2021

It is heard both in song and in general conversation that this is 'the most wonderful time of the year.' For those of us who are grieving, however, nothing can be further from the truth. We often approach this holiday season with feelings of dread, rather than excitement. We fear that our loved ones will not understand the pain that the holiday season brings. We feel pressure to do more than we are ready to do.

In today's episode, Gwen and I delve into how grieving people can approach and try to prepare for holiday events and all of the emotions that come with the holiday season. This was Facebook and YouTube Livestream so was answer questions directly from listeners as well. Overall, I feel like there was so much good information shared from Gwen as well as ideas from listeners. The bottom line is, as difficult as the idea of grieving through holidays is, by preparing ahead of time, we can give ourselves at least a few 'wonderful' moments during an otherwise difficult time.

** If you want to participate in our next Livestream event, Gwen and I will again be talking on Tuesday, December 21st at 8pm Eastern Time. At that time, we will be answering any last minute pre-Christmas questions. We will also be sharing some sweet stories as now has been a Christmas tradition for the podcast (Episode 17: Messages of Hope and Episode 67: Messages from Heaven). If you are interested in contributing stories to these podcasts, you can email me at marcy@andysmom.com. You can either email the story directly for us to read or I can email a link to the livestream so you can share it yourself on the broadcast. We hope to have many stories to share just as we have in past years!