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When A Child is Murdered
Some topics are almost impossible to write about. This is one of them. While writing Whisper Their Names, I wanted to acknowledge parents whose children were taken through murder or violent crime. It is a grief so devastating that many people don’t know what to say, so they say nothing at all.
One quote that has stayed with me for years:
When people are murdered, they are remembered for how they died, not how they lived.
I don’t know who first said those words, but they break my heart every time I read them. No parent wants their child remembered for the worst moment of their life. They want people to remember the laughter, the dreams, the kindness, and the ordinary moments that made their child who they were. That is their true legacy.
As I researched this subject, I realized how often these tragedies happen and how little we talk about them. They aren’t just stories on the evening news. They happen to real families whose lives are forever changed in a single moment. One thing I saw again and again was guilt.
Parents replay every decision, wondering what they could have done differently. If only I had driven them. If only I had called. If only I had been there.
But guilt is a cruel companion. It keeps us trapped in a place where healing feels impossible. The truth is that we cannot control every moment of life. Sometimes terrible things happen despite all the love and care in the world. If this is your story, please know that you are not…
