From The Atlantic.

Danielle Crittenden’s eldest daughter, Miranda, died in 2024. “More than two years have passed, but Miranda’s absence never ceases to shock me,” Crittenden writes. “It retains the power to hit me anew each day. Why is she still not here? Haven’t we suffered enough? Don’t we deserve to have her back now?”

“Sometimes I miss the intensity of early grief—it meant I was closer to her in time; I could almost touch her still,” Crittenden writes.

“Maternal grief seizes the body differently from other sorrows. The attachment to our child begins at conception. Fetal cells migrate during pregnancy, taking up residence in the mother’s brain and organs. The child’s cells can remain in the mother for as long as she lives. They can help her fight off illness, recover from surgery. I find this infinitely comforting: Even after death, Miranda remains alive within me, her cells woven through my brain and blood.”

🎨: Sophia Deng