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Gray February

April 17, 2024 7 Comments

By Megan Hanlon

My parents both died in February, nine years and three feet of snow apart.

If I had known that’s when they’d go, I would have chosen a different birth month for my firstborn. He was too small to carry the weight of all that loss packed like duffel bags on either side of him.

And if he’d known the way flakes will fall in that gray month, the way grief can drift and blow and bury one alive, maybe he would have chosen someone else to be delivered to—perhaps a bright blooming flower instead of a sea of white cold.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Toni Brayer says

    April 17, 2024 at 7:28 am

    Stunningly beautiful.

    Reply
  2. DAVID LEWIS says

    April 17, 2024 at 8:15 am

    Very powerful Megan. Great comparison of the weight of loss to duffel bags robbing the new-born of joy.

    Reply
  3. Chadd Lin says

    April 17, 2024 at 9:35 am

    Beautiful and sad. Undertones of hope despite despair.

    Reply
  4. Bud says

    April 17, 2024 at 2:43 pm

    A truly sad story wonderfully written.

    Reply
  5. Delphine says

    April 18, 2024 at 2:57 am

    This is stunning & heartbreaking, Megan

    Reply
  6. Laura says

    April 21, 2024 at 1:02 pm

    But he is the luckiest boy because you are his mom and recognize the tenderness he brings to that month and life.

    Reply
  7. Delphine says

    February 13, 2025 at 1:26 pm

    So beautifully perfectly written. Heartbreaking.

    Reply

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