In 2021, my beautiful, strong mother, Keri, passed away from kidney cancer. I was 22 and just a month away from starting graduate school to earn my teaching credential.
Around that same time, one of my third-grade students was Student of the Week. During his show-and-tell, another student asked how many siblings he had. He froze and looked toward his teachers. His baby brother had recently passed away, and he didn't know how to answer.
Even though he was only eight and I was 22, I deeply understood what he was feeling. After losing my mom, I struggled with how to answer simple questions about my family and explain that she had passed away.
Grief can feel impossible at any age, but for children, stories can be a powerful way to understand feelings that are difficult to put into words. That experience inspired me to write this book. I wanted to create a story that gently explores the many emotions and stages of grief, shows children that they can continue to feel connected to someone they've lost, and offers comforting characters and keepsakes they can engage with along the way.
My hope is that this book can also help adults bridge the difficult conversation of grief with a child. There is no perfect thing to say or do when someone is grieving, but simply starting the conversation, giving a child space to ask questions, and creating an opportunity for them to talk about their feelings can be powerful in itself. Ultimately, I hope this story helps children—and the adults who love them—feel a little less alone.