When a loved one passes away, it's absolutely devastating.
Death is a hard concept to grapple with, and when someone passes away unexpectedly, it can be challenging for their friends and family to feel whole.
If a parent loses a child, though, it's even more difficult to process.
It doesn't matter if it's a 7-month-old baby or a 30-year-old woman — dealing with the death of a child is almost impossible.
Most parents feel that their children should outlive them, so when they live longer than their babies, it doesn't feel right.
Tricia Belstra has recently been thrust into the throes of grief. Her son passed away in August 2017.
The grieving mom had to fly across the country for her son's burial, but the flight proved to be a lot more difficult than she expected.
A week after her flight, Tricia took to Facebook to explain the difficult journey, and how a caring flight attendant actually turned her whole day around.
[H/T: Love What Matters]
Tricia shared her story on the Facebook page Love What Matters, where it quickly went viral.
Within less than 24 hours, the post had over 48,000 reactions and over 5,300 shares.
Tricia wrote:
I couldn’t tell this story until now… I flew in on Southwest Airlines flight 1076 on August 18th.
I was not looking or feeling good. I sat in my seat between two strangers holding a barf bag down low between my legs.
One of the flight attendants looked at me and asked if I was okay.
I asked for some water and another person brought it to me.
Then this young man came by; I wish I would have gotten his name. He was getting drink requests.
I asked for a diet coke and another glass of water. He leaned in and asked if I was okay.
I told him I was flying back to bury my son. He said he was so sorry and brought me a can of water, a glass of ice and my diet coke.
The girl next to me offered to pour the water for me because my hands were shaking. When we landed the girl helped me with my luggage.
As I am leaving the plane the young man who waited on me was standing on the landing and as I walked off the plane he stopped me and handed me a napkin and said he was sorry for my loss and this wasn’t much. I said thank you and walked out.
When I got to where I was out of the walkway I looked at the napkin he gave me and cried.
The note, carefully written on a napkin, reads:
In 2004, my family lost my older brother. As traumatic as it still is for me, I can’t even pretend to truly know the pain you feel as a mother. I did, however watch my mother’s grieving process (a process that will never end). Firstly, being a mother is about giving birth to new life as a promise to the future. Your mission doesn’t end now — your son’s life is bigger than his death and always will be.
My mom struggled desperately chasing a faraway goal of somehow lessening the pain. As she has realized now, the pain hardly lessens. Don’t expend your energy trying to chase this. Instead, go all out finding opportunities to experience joy. visit family, get closer to those you’ve lost touch with, travel. This is your story and you owe it to yourself and your son to make sure that you survive this. Do not pressure yourself.
This world is full of people who do truly care bout you, even if it doesn’t feel that way. I won’t stop thinking about you anytime soon or how you’re doing or what you’re up to. You’ll come out of this a stronger person and I’ll be rooting for you the whole time.
Tricia concluded her post by noting:
I had Father Mike bless him and he said he was one of God’s soul angels. Please share this and I hope it gets back to him.
Thank you so much for your kind words from a person that took the time to write this not even knowing me.
If you are moved by this kind flight attendant's words, please SHARE this article with your friends!
