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Welcome to the Critical Junctures Podcast. This podcast is for parents who have lost a child and are navigating the loss of that child. Today is our first official release of the podcast and website. This is the five-year anniversary. Of my son's passing. A few days before my son's passing, he looked at me and asked the question, Dad, did my life really matter?

And as a father, you look and go, you can't imagine how much your life mattered to the people that you touched. It reminds me of a message we heard at church from a guest speaker who came and talked about the brevity of life, the brevity of life, the brevity of life. They told a story about visiting a grave site of his ancestors who laid a foundation for his grandparents and his parents and his children and his future grandchildren. 

Every person in life has an impact on someone else. Sometimes those lives are cut short, and their impact is for a lesser amount of time, but no less impact. 

I am doing this initial podcast from the grave sites of both my father and my son.  My father's passing was very difficult for me. He had been involved in every aspect of my life. Every major event that I had, he was there for it. But that's the natural progression, children bury parents. It shouldn't be the parents bury children, but the reality of life is that does happen, and it happens more often than we'd like to believe. There's a number of stories that we're going to be sharing on the podcast of parents who have lost children.

They've lost them through accidents. They've lost them through drug overdoses. They've lost them through medical conditions, through cancer, similar to, to Richy's. They've lost them to suicide. They've lost them in war, lost them to criminal acts where they were murdered. All of those losses are incredibly traumatic, but the grief is a similar grief shared by all parents who have lost a child. Losing a child does not make a difference if you're wealthy, poor, middle class, if you have the greatest job in the world, or if you don't have a job, it doesn't matter. Economic status, it doesn't matter. All of the fortunate things or unfortunate things that have happened in a life, when that death comes to a child, it's a grief that's enduring that every parent goes through.

My hope in this podcast is that we can share. Through the stories and shared experiences of others who have gone through it, ways that help you understand that you're not alone in it. A lot of times, death of a child is very isolating. When the child's lost, there's a lot of people there that are supporting you. They're there for comfort. They're there to celebrate the life with you and share in your emotion and, support. But the loss of a child goes on, and a year from now, five years from now, can be very isolating and lonely. There are parents that are 20 years removed from the loss of a child, still struggle to talk about it. Don't want anyone to ask. It's not about not remembering their child, but that pain is still so powerful in their life that it can be overwhelming. Theirs’s other parents you'll see that have taken that grief and turned it into missions. Missions to eradicate pediatric cancer, missions to eliminate fentanyl coming into the country, missions to stop violence before it can happen. Ones that can stop drugs from being shared in our communities that take lives. So, all of these stories are each person's unique journey and each parent's unique journey. But the common thread for all of us is that grief never goes away. 

This week in our neighborhood, I saw celebrations of both high school and college graduations. There have been babies born, weddings happen, anniversary celebrations, even events that you remember for a long time with great, just positive memories. Indiana University getting to play my beloved Notre Dame