A four-year-old who loves songs, big laughs, and making faces on stage should be worrying about preschool, not chemotherapy. Our guest, Kimberly Crumby, tells the story of her daughter Hannah Grace, whose childhood leukemia diagnosis in 2009 turned into a medical roller coaster of strokes, infections, ventilators, and heartbreaking decisions that no parent is ever prepared to face.

We go beyond the headline loss and talk about what bereaved parents actually carry after the death of a child: trauma that lives in the body, sleepless nights that replay hospital scenes, the slow pull of “high-functioning” depression, and the strain grief can put on a marriage when two people hurt in different ways. Kimberly shares why counseling and talking with your physician can matter, how medication can help you get a foothold without numbing your love, and why survival sometimes looks like getting through one ordinary day at a time.

We also name the kind of grief many outsiders miss: future grief. Birthdays, kindergarten, high school graduation, and all the imagined milestones can hit like fresh waves years later, especially when social media keeps the comparisons in your face. Kimberly and I talk about what helps from friends and church community too, including practical support, showing up without trying to fix anything, and saying your child’s name because forgetting is the fear.

If you’re navigating child loss, or supporting a grieving parent, we hope this conversation gives you language, tools, and real hope rooted in faith, including Kimberly’s anchor passage from Lamentations 3. Share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more hurting families can find this support.

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