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I found you here after following your other blog and Instagram. I lost a child 14 years ago. 14. Sometimes it feels like one minute and sometimes a lifetime but your words take me right back whether I’d like them to or not. I know the raw wide open place of grief you are in. It is not in moments where it comes and then goes. It is the atmosphere around you…. There is no getting away from atmosphere, it just is. I am so sorry. I don’t know what else to write except that. The aching that you feel. I feel it with you. Xo

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Dear Tara,

Your daughter's Story and your Newsletter were highlighted in one of my favorite Substack Newsletters by Heather Heying: Natural Selections.

Mila's biography touched me deeply and my heart and mind felt sad that the world has lost such a beautiful young soul who, no doubt, was intended to continue touching the world in important ways, had she lived.

I, too, have been touched by suicide in my family but for starkly different reasons to do with genetics and our ignorance as a family.

As you told the uplifting and beautiful stories about her depth of feeling and emotion toward people and animals, the beauty of nature and the importance of connection, my heart was pained by both the beauty and hurt of what I know she must have often felt.

I, too, have a depth of sensitivity, (empathy, which Mila clearly had ❤️), which amplifies the highs and the lows and know how challenging it can be to live in a world that seems to lack the same level of sensitivity around the more important elements of life. Life's demands often dampen ones ability to see clearly the beauty that always surrounds us and is available should we be strong enough to pursue it.

As a grandmother (Nonna) to 5 children, aged 8-16 years, I am thankful for your telling of Mila's experiences as a young person in this time of COVID. As an adult, it is easy to forget what it is like to be young with the excitement of your whole life ahead of you. COVID, along with the terrible political divisions we have seen in our U.S.of A., (as well as other parts of the world) have put an unfair burden on the generations intended to inherit and carry on after us.

Some of the examples being set for them seem terribly lacking in encouragement for those who will be tasked with the future of our world. How have we come to be so selfish as adults tasked with lighting the way for the younger generations? 😔

My 15 year old granddaughter just had an incident at school which will serve as a hard, but hopefully deeply informative, lesson. In another time, with a different political climate, this would have been a non-incident considered just normal kid stuff. But identity politics have brought a grave imbalance into several different spheres, schools being a fertile breeding ground for gotcha' judgement of, what was once considered, typical teenage behavior (although I still didn't necessarily agree with it!). I have heartfelt concerns for the impact this will have as she has been suspended from school and will have five days at home to consider the situation and how to relate to it. A short recording already posted to Instagram has put her in the crosshairs for misjudgment and mean and cruel treatment. Often suffering with anxiety, I pray that this will not bring adverse consequences.

Mila's story has called my attention to how often we can be unaware of just how deeply the emotional storms raging within a young person's mind and heart can go. Mila's ultimate turn to a method of escape, which ultimately impacted and helped to end her life, is a harsh reminder of the reality that most human beings have a "drug of choice" to help them through the hard times.

Thank you, again, for sharing your broken heart and personal experience. It heightens my need for attention to and empathy with our young people.

May God bless you with peace of heart and mind as you continue to miss your precious child and all the beauty she added to your lives and to all who she impacted. My the most beautiful memories of her sustain you.🙏🏻💕

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