Four Years Without Daddy – Walking This Grief Journey Together

Today, July 7, 2025, marks four years since Daddy went to Heaven.

It’s a day that comes with a deep heaviness—a weight that settles into our hearts and lingers throughout the day. For our family, this isn’t just a date on the calendar. It’s a milestone in our grief journey, one more step down a path we never asked to walk, but one we’ve had to learn to navigate with love, with memory, and with grace.

Grief doesn’t follow the rules. It doesn’t fade with time like people often say. It shifts, it changes, it surprises you. There are moments when it feels like we’re doing okay, managing day by day. Then there are days like this—days when the absence is loud, when the missing feels impossible to carry, and when the tears come freely.

For Mom, today is especially tender. The house is quieter. The routines that once defined their shared life feel hollow. She’s done so much to keep going, to stay strong, but we see the sorrow she carries underneath it all. We try to offer grief support in the ways we know how—through presence, through listening, through simply sitting with her in the sadness. But there’s no replacing a lifetime of love.

For us kids, it’s the sting of not being able to call him, hear his laugh, or feel his hand on our shoulder when we need advice. We’ve each found our own ways of coping with grief—some through talking, some through quiet reflection, some through holding tightly to the stories and memories that still bring him close. And while we’ve moved forward in life, we carry him with us in everything: our choices, our values, our faith, our humor.

This day is hard. It’s tender. It’s sacred.

But we know we’re not alone in it.

So many others are walking their own grief journey, and one of the greatest comforts has been knowing that grief, while deeply personal, is also universal. We’ve found strength in community, in sharing our story, and in leaning on one another when the weight feels too heavy.

If you’re grieving someone today too, we see you. Your pain is real. Your love is real. And your grief is not something to hide or push away—it’s something to hold, honor, and walk through, day by day.

Daddy, we miss you. We love you. And we carry you in every heartbeat, every tear, and every bit of joy we still manage to find.

You are never forgotten.