One year of loving Blair from afar
"A mother always carries her children. Sometimes she carries their life. Sometimes she carries their death. But she will always carry them, no matter where they are."
- Rachel Lewis
On June 12, 2020 at 9:27pm, Blair Elise Strohmayer was born. Our beautiful third daughter.
I am humbled by all of the beautiful birthday celebrations for our girl yesterday (see the slideshow at the bottom of this blog post for people’s photos!). Thank you to all who participated in such a beautiful remembrance on her special day. I cannot begin to describe how meaningful it has been to see her life honored. Though she was born still, Blair was still born, and all of these photos of celebrating Blair’s birth are reminders of the impact her tiny life has had and will continue to have on the world.
As the special milestones of the first year have now passed, other families of stillborn children often give warnings that the second year may feel harder than the first. Culturally speaking, there is an expectation that grieving should now be over. In reality, grieving families know that we cannot forget or ‘get over’ the death of our children. Though days are much more emotionally stable than in earlier months of grieving, there will always be times where I am overcome by the sadness of missing Blair and all of the things we as a family continue to miss her presence for - like seeing her smile and play alongside her siblings or experience the joys of summertime like we are all doing right now.
Stillborn babies like Blair are remembered and honored forever. Like the quote shared at the beginning of this post, I will always carry all of my children, both in life and in death. I look forward to continuing Blair’s legacy and celebrating her birthdays for all the years of my life.
