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After the death of a child, grief becomes your lifetime companion.

Time will change how your body, mind, and heart reacts to grief.

You will find yourself moving in and out of cycles of sadness and hope. There will be times of intense feelings and times of quiet numbness.

All of these feelings and changes are a normal part of living with grief.

A well is a deep pit that no one wants to fall into and become trapped within.

If you were to think of your grief as a deep well, comparable in depth to the love that you have for your child or children, you can see how easily you could fall deeply into that well and find yourself unable to escape or even see daylight.

The bottom of a well of grief is not a healthy place to stay for very long.

Often, when faced with the loss of a child, a parent will begin to neglect their own self-care.

Eating well, exercising, taking vitamins, and sleeping well will tend to be overlooked or neglected as bereaved parents find themselves consumed with grief.

Emotional distress can frequently lead to physical distress, and your health can easily begin to decline.

Without a healthy body, it can become very hard to find the strength to climb up out of a well of despair...

... which can then bring about more emotional distress.

If you are at a stage where nothing feels like it matters and you don't really care about your physical health at all, you are not alone.

We have all been there!

Try to make just one small change - one vitamin a day or one glass of water - and let time take it from there.

Even one tiny new habit can help you to feel better!

Even with the best intent, emotionally hard days will surface when we least expect them… creating a well of grief that we can find ourselves falling into without warning.

"Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve."

— Earl Grollman

"Worry and stress affects the circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system, and profoundly affects the heart."

— Charles W. Mayo, M.D.

(The next page contains small easy steps to take that will help your body to heal while you are grieving.)