I live in Newtown, CT with my husband Charlie and our four sons, Charlie, James, Henry, and George. Tinsley, our 3rd child and only daughter, is buried near our home, having been stillborn on December 4, 2017.
I believe in God, and I believe God, but usually I do not understand God.
After Tinsley died, I searched my heart out to find help:
- help to know what was ‘normal’ (I’m not crazy to think Tinsley needs a blanket on her grave because it’s cold outside)
- help for ways I could celebrate Tinsley (my favorite is a photo of the exact night sky on the date of her heavenly birthday)
- help on how to talk to my living children about their sister’s death
- help on what spiritual and non-spiritual books to read
- help on how to handle returning to work
- help on finding online communities with other loss moms, and more.
Poetry has always comforted me –both reading and writing it. So I created Less Than 1 Percent to:
- Share my poetry
- Organize and process my grief
- Help fellow loss moms on their journeys
- Memorialize and honor my daughter Tinsley
I have contributed poetry to Glow in the Woods, National Sharing Magazine, Just Playing House, Urban Howl, and the Little Souls. Megan Devine, the author of It’s Okay That You’re Not Okay, tweeted one of my poems once, which made my day.
I am grateful for an outlet to express my pain, anger, resentment, guilt, fear, and powerlessness (and in some brief moments, hope), and I am even more grateful if it helps you, too.
Less Than 1%: Surviving My Stillborn 