Grieve Like a Mother, Survive Like a Warrior is a powerful and moving collection of reflections and real-life experiences from fourteen mothers who have faced the unimaginable—and chose to face it together.

With honesty and compassion, we share what it means to live through the loss of a child. It offers understanding, connection, and the hard-earned wisdom we discovered while trying to find a way back into the light from the darkened depths of our grief. If you or someone you know is walking this path, this book was written for you—with open hearts and the hope that it will help you feel just a little less alone.

We wanted to write a book we wished was available when we needed it. We wanted to hear the real stories, the dark days, the dark moments, and yet, we wanted to hear from moms who pushed through and found their smiles. We feel that child loss demands more than a clean and neat description of the five stages of grief. While these are good to know to normalize feelings and understand some things to expect in each grief stage, there was no book containing pain AND hope. When we lost our children, we  wanted a book that honored the deep pain of child loss, honest truths about dark days, and presented ideas of how to survive. So we wrote the book we wished we had. We hope this book provides some solace and hope.

We also want readers to know that the word “surviving” is not inflated; we are surviving day by day and sometimes breath by breath.

We want to also acknowledge that we are not psychologists and do not claim that these strategies are enough to “cure” deep grief. Instead, we hope you hear that we intentionally seek help from counselors, doctors, pastors, books, grief groups, friends, family, and more. We try to face our grief, feel it, rest when we need it, and find a myriad of ways to honor our beloved children.