I was in a store and a lady said she liked my necklace. She has always been the nicest cashier so I told her the birthstone with wings was for my son, my stillborn son. She told me about her two losses, one that she didn't know about until delivery.

My mom told me that someone was asking how I was doing. This lady who was in her 70s told my mom about her three sons born stillborn before having her two living children. She said their names. She remembered details of each sweet boy.

My 60 year old something neighbor stopped me when I was walking. He told me how sorry he was for the loss of my son. Then with tears in his eyes he told me about the loss of his little girl to SIDS. His only little girl. He told me her name.

My other neighbor, also older, told another family member about his stillborn son. He said how far along his wife had been and his son's name.

How brave so many people are and I never would have known their terrible heartbreak until I had to walk down the same horrible, lonely, well-worn, sad road.

I came across a lot of sad loss stories only after I faced it myself too. It is so heartbraking that so many people and families are impacted by these tragedies... From one hand it helps you as you think you're not alone in your grief but on the other hand it makes you even more sad thinking noone is safe from experiencing the loss of a child.
And I agree with you Mommy of 3 - you need to be so brave to share your loss story with other people.