A Silent Epidemic
Every year, nearly a million American families experience a miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death. Yet, as Julie Sullivan shows in her Oregonian special report, "When a Baby Dies," these families often suffer in silence as friends and acquaintances fail to comprehend their loss. By telling several families' stories, Sullivan helps us to understand their profound grief. Here she describes how Jeanine and Jared Seger tried to deal with the loss of their infant son:
After Max died, they shut down their business remodeling vintage homes. Stayed inside for two months. Didn't answer the phone. Max's bear suit, wrapped in a receiving blanket stained with his blood, lay between them….
The more Jeanine needed to talk, the fewer words Jared could find; his anger cooled to mute sadness. He'd climb into his pickup each morning and find himself starting to cry. He'd clean up and go into the job site, but when he returned to the truck at day's end, the tears were there.
How long could grief last? Jared wondered. Then a neighbor spoke of missing a child who'd died 50 years earlier. "So that's how long," Jared thought.
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/baby/