"And I didn’t go buy fireworks today. Not yesterday, either. Nor will I buy them tomorrow because you will not be here to light them. I realize now what I loved about fireworks was how much you loved them ..." ~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer ahundredfallingveils.com/2025/07/03/i...

"Although everyone’s expiration date is stamped somewhere, in a place we cannot see, most of us will never notice the end coming, not knowing when or how we’ll leave the world what will remain undone, unsaid, unresolved when we go." findyourharbor.com/expiration-d...

"When his cup of cranberry apple juice arrived, I quietly put it into the drink recess on his tray and returned to my book. Thirty minutes later, I bolted upright as icy cold liquid cascaded down my left leg and began pooling at my feet. findyourharbor.com/kindness/

"I knew that the pain of losing Jimmy would be searing, no matter when or how it happened. But there, in the dark, I vow to make it worth the pain. To fight like hell to keep him alive as long as I can. To be present for all those sweet moments of ordinary joy." findyourharbor.com/enough/

"It’s all such a mess— how immaculate the house is now. All I want is you tracking muddy bootprints across my life. Come back, fix this with my missing shoelaces. Why did I care that we were walking on salt? Come home. I will call it the beach." ~ Megan Falley substack.com/@andreagibso...

"To join the Parents of Dead Children club is a twisted privilege. An honor you’d happily give up to have your baby back. You are the stuff of other people’s nightmares, yet how much less rich your life would be without these astounding souls." findyourharbor.com/the-club-no-...

"In that place with no coordinate on anyone’s map but mine, the energy of our shared particles still dancing between us. The meeting point between the mundane and the divine. The place where Jimmy will find me whenever I let that last breath go." findyourharbor.com/the-thin-pla...

It's impossible to describe the body blow of hearing 'There are no more treatments to try' spoken about your 21-yr-old son...yet as poet Andrea Gibson wrote just before her death, happiness really is easier to find once you realize you don’t have forever to find it. findyourharbor.com/stilling-time/

"Twelve years on, my brain has finally come to terms with the reality of his death, yet even now I struggle to make sense of it. The here replaced with the no longer. The symmetry of our family forever gone. The missing piece I have tried so hard to find." findyourharbor.com/the-missing-...

"This week has been difficult for no particular reason. Well, that's not true– my children are dead. That's the reason." ~ Liane Cooper findyourharbor.com/she-came-any...

"Gone child. Ghost child. My beloved boy. Talk to me. Tell me where the dead go. Visit me. Break bread with me. I'll make you what you love. Crab cakes & chocolate chip cookies. I'll even let you lick the spoon ..." findyourharbor.com/ghost-child/

My husband and I both got tattoos in honor of our amazing son, Noah. He was always so loving and happy, and he would want us to stay positive. The SE Victory tattoo is a tribute to his gaming family Smokeless Empire. ~Melissa Griffin 💚 Noah Skylar Lear, 7/13/99 - 3/16/16 #tattoosoflove

My daughter's name is Jemma. Jemma means "precious gem." Gemstones are formed in the dark and brought into the light where we can witness their beauty. The thing is, their beauty remains–whether or not they are seen.

This is a photo of the Post-it Notes I have kept since Rory was a little boy. I had one traced to remind me every morning of his love. He was my only child & died in his sleep 4 yrs ago from a genetic heart defect we never knew about. I look at it all the time. ❤️ S x ~Sharryn #tattoosoflove

My son Andrew valiantly battled heart disease from a young age, enduring 2 defibrillator implant surgeries & died on the football pitch at just 15. A committed player for Salvesen Community Football Club & devoted Hearts fan, his love for football was his defining attribute.

When our daughter Nicole was killed in an accident right after Christmas 1998, it was a loss so deep I believed I wouldn't survive. The event caused me to feel like a prisoner in my pain. Trapped. But when I thought about Nicole’s life & how free she was, I became determined to follow her example.

This was my brother Anthony's signature. I got it on his birthday, one month after he passed away. The blackbird represents the song, Blackbird, which my mom always says was "his song". ~Lana #tattoosoflove

Mason & I had been talking about getting our 1st tattoos together. When he was killed in a car accident at 20 in April 2019, I knew I would follow thru for him. My 1st tattoo, done just a few months later, states the reality of my feelings with his "wings around my heart.”

My daughter and I got matching tattoos. This is my son’s fingerprint (blown up) and his actual writing. The artist made a stencil from Pike’s handwriting and traced it. ~ Mica Refit Dallas #tattoosoflove

I had some of the message from the last card I had from Rory tattooed onto my arms. On one side, he thanks me for being the best mum ever. The other side where he panics because he bought the wrong card and once home just scores it out to be mother’s day instead of birthday.

My husband Nate's dad died suddenly & unexpectedly at 60 on August 7, 2017. Nate got this tattoo in honor of his family crest which means "for the king." His family is Irish. We were able to find the crest that matched his family's. ~Aja Oakman-Mahaffey #tattoosoflove

My son Carson passed away aged 13 on the 12th April 2019. He is my first son! The song lyrics "I'll be living one life for the two of us" gave me hope as I know he would want me to keep living and keep him alive with me!

I never thought I'd be brave enough to get a tattoo & I never thought I'd be brave enough to live without my big brother. Together forever, always watching out for his baby sister. Two skullconuts, one for me & one for Rudy, though he's no longer here in the physical world ..

i have a craving to get tattoos now & they all circle back to Max in some way. he loved tattoo art & was working on a sleeve. we talked about it all the time, sharing images of what he liked, how he wanted it to look. he ran out of time, time that he should have had, time that was his.

The 1st tattoo is the exact tattoo my son had on the same arm. I had the woman who gave it to him do mine after he passed away. I have dedicated my right arm to all things Taeven- I have added stars because I feel like he is somewhere way out in the universe his name ...

My 1st loss-related tattoo was my mom’s last words to me on my wrist. From there, I have looked for other ways to express my love & imprint reminders of her & others I’ve lost, on my body. Here’s the latest one ... it's inspired by a photo of my mom on our last family holiday.

Christian was 17 years old when he died by suicide. It was something we never saw coming and was a punch in the gut to everyone. August 23, 2017 was the day my son took his last breath. It was the day my life turned upside down, and I had to fight to stay alive.

My dad died on 8/31/10 from cancer at the age of 54. I was holding his hand when he passed away. He was my hero. He wrote this in the last birthday card he gave me on my 26th birthday, two months before his death. I LOVE that I have his handwriting and loving words on my wrist.

“I don’t shy away from the fact that my brother is dead, he killed himself when he was 17 & try to make that a more natural conversation people don’t have to get uncomfortable about & don’t have to get afraid of.

My mom was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2001 & had a double stem cell transplant. There was a 4% chance she would survive. She wrote my sister, brother & me each a note that she asked to be given to us if she didn't make it. She lived 17 beautiful years after her double stem cell transplant.

I lost my son Michael in 2013. Got my tattoo in 2014. My husband hated it: too much black, but I was so lost in the darkness. In 2019, I was ready to emerge into the light & I decided it was up to me to find the beauty in my sadness.

My husband Robert and I were married in March 2011 at San Francisco City Hall. He passed away in February 2014. In the last few years of his life, he'd become obsessed with fountain pens, so I knew I wanted to incorporate that into my memorial for him.

It's 9 years on 16 April I lost my husband of 40 years to cancer. The dragonfly was used by the hospice we were involved with during Mark's illness. Dragonflies symbolize our ability to overcome times of hardship, reminding us to reconnect w/our own strength, courage & happiness.

I always wanted a tattoo with my 4 sons' names but not being a “tattoo person” it stayed a maybe someday thought. Then my youngest son Macauly died and as a family we got tattoos in his memory. It is true that once you have one tattoo, you begin thinking about having others.

We were desperate to find a way to connect with Tommy. Katie, Tommy’s sister, suggested we get the same tattoo & drew one on a friend’s ankle. We joked about it, but the thought of getting the tattoo appealed to many of us. ~ Cindy Watanabe #tattoosoflove findyourharbor.com/the-tommy-tat/

This is Oliver's footprint on mine. We were blessed to have him on this earth for 487 days. We took Ollie hiking in five National Parks and many state parks. I wore him on every hike. I got this tattoo so I would never hike without my sweet boy. ~ Machelle Chapman Stotts

He loved antiques and gramophones, wearing suits, cowboy hats and cowboy boots. The tattoo says "We'll Meet Again" after one of his favorite songs by Vera Lynn. The second tattoo has his signature; the writing below was typed on his favorite typewriter, a Urania.

Caleb always said, "I love you more" and that is his name in the writing when he was five. The 17 butterflies are from smallest to biggest and orange because it's the color of Tennessee Volunteer football. The white butterfly represents the year he left my arms. ~ Chrisy Slate #tattoosoflove

I’m not eager to find myself in a black place again any time soon, but I know I am wiser for having spent time under water. Even now..distracted by the detritus of everyday living, the light burns brighter, reminding me how much beauty remains in this life of mine. findyourharbor.com/the-song-of-...

I lost my father (Joe Maxey) to cancer in 1993 & my mother Karen in 2016. I always wanted a memorial tattoo, so after my mom's passing, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. My father worked for the United States Post Office from the late 70s to shortly before he died in ‘93.

"Mother, it doesn't matter.” Parker didn't care about money, clothes, his hockey stats. He had the right things figured out at just 18 and lived life true to who he was. He really meant that none of those things matter. That's his signature below the words. ~Rhonda Clarke-Tobin

Two months after I lost my daughter Frankie, I got a tattoo to represent “liminal” from the title of Frankie’s unperformed senior thesis play. Liminal beings have 2 identities (mermaids); liminal periods are rites of passage (weddings): transitions entailing new ways of being.

My son Samuel was 12 when he died of brain cancer in Dec 2015. These words were taken from a Mother's Day card Samuel made for me in the 4th grade. The handwriting is his. It gives me much comfort to be able to read these words any time & remind myself that he still loves me.

I never thought I would get a tattoo… soon after my dad Chris passed 7 years ago, that changed. I miss him with every fiber of my being & feel his absence in every nerve. I used to send my dad little notes in the mail with my checks or other things I would mail home. He would send me a note back.

All we have is today. Do what you love with people you love. Thank you, Dan, for being my biggest source of strength and inspiration as I know that everything I do, I am doing with you. Daniel Velez, 1981-2014 ~ Alejandro Velez #tattoosoflove

My tattoos in remembrance of our 18 year old son Riley, who died 4/29/22 by suicide due to a sudden mental health crisis. The heart is a treble clef because he was a musician and the semicolon represents suicide awareness/hope to continue forward.

There is nowhere you could go that I won't be with you .. My precious girl's last little footprints … Pops has Jack Skellington as Thalia adored Jack and Uncle Joe has her final hand print true to size The Thalia-Beau Foundation #tattoosoflove

I visualized the entire sleeve while I sat beside Luke’s bed in the PICU waiting for the transplant teams to come & harvest his organs. The wings of each dragonbee were created using the fingerprints of each of our children. Luke’s will be the last fingerprints I have from him.

Our daughter Ruby died from leukaemia in May 2020, aged 18. On what would have been her 19th birthday, her Dad & I got the same tattoo – her name as she signed it. Me on my left arm, him on his right. So when we hold hands, Ruby is between us. ~ Live Kindly Live Loudly #tattoosoflove

This is my tattoo in memory of my forever 12yo son Kyan who died tragically 4 years ago. He was an ASD kid with amazing superpowers. He taught himself 35 classical pieces of piano (mainly classical) over the last 7 months of his life and learned how to read and write music.