There is nothing about resilience that I can say that my father did not first utter silently in eighteen years of living inside a two-dimensional cutout of himself.

To be perfectly frank, there is an odd place after losing a child, where you think somehow your life is worth less.

I took my son's name. I didn't take my husband's name.

My heart goes out to the grieving parents who lost their two-year-old or their newborn.

I'm not worried about me or what's going to happen to me.

Almost everybody embraces life.

But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful.