We Weren't Finished Being Parents: When You Lose Your Only Child

By Barbara B. Mercer

Daniel was our only child and on Tuesday, September 26, 2006, he stepped through the gates of Heaven. We had no direction in which to go. But powerfully God has delivered a tremendous belief to us that we never had before. He is giving us understanding. We are learning how tremendous faith can be. We hope that our story and our new beliefs will deliver His message to you in the same such way and help you see how honored we are that our special child was chosen to be re-birthed into His greatness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ambassador International
• Release date: Nov 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781620205891

Book preview

We Weren’t Finished Being Parents

When you lose your only child

© 2008 Barbara B. Mercer

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design & page layout by A&E Media — David Siglin

eBook Design by Anna Riebe Raats

ISBN 978-1-93230-784-9

eISBN: 978-1-62020-589-1

Published by the Ambassador Group

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the most successful thing

in my life so far, my son, Mark Daniel Mercer

(August 18, 1984 – September 26, 2006)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Information

Dedication

Foreword

Chapter 1: We all Have Something in Common

Chapter 2: Our Road to Parenthood

Chapter 3: That Day

Chapter 4: Entering into the World Again

Chapter 5: What Others Think

Chapter 6: Coping my Way

Chapter 7: Parents of a Spirit

Chapter 8: Animals have Feelings Too

Chapter 9: What Else we Lost

Chapter 10: Loose Ends

Chapter 11: The Strength to Go On

Chapter 12: Our Blueprint for Parenthood

Chapter 13: Introducing Daniel

Chapter 14: News, Bad to Good

Chapter 15: Memories

Chapter 16: Feelings

Conclusion

Contact Information

FOREWORD

I have never been more propelled to do something than to put into words the following real life story. What this all-consuming need is and where it is derived from must be from a higher self. All I know is that I need to tell anyone who will listen and hope that those that are experiencing a similar loss, that my story, in some way, can help them.

My life changed on September 26, 2006. The way I think changed on a day in early October 2007. That day, I greeted a gentleman with the normal good morning and he replied, as many of us do, it’s better than the alternative. For some reason my mind stopped, I literally went blank, and I began to really analyze that statement. What I thought was that life cannot be better than the alternative. The reason being is that most of us believe the alternative to be death, which means heaven, right? This is the way I think, because if I have any doubts, then where is Daniel? I have to believe that Daniel has reached the ultimate destination, the alternative.

This man's statement, I don’t know, somehow opened my eyes to what we take for granted and can’t get back. I was so jolted by his comment that I wrote a letter about it, sent it to the editor of the newspaper, and within a day he called me to publish it.

Whether my story helps one grieving parent or a million, my goal is that it at least offers some comfort and some perspective from someone who has experienced, and continues to experience, the process of starting over, because really that is what we are doing.

chapter 1

WE ALL HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON

Through our lives, we all experience some form of loss. It could be the family pet, but still there is pain. Not like what we are experiencing, but nonetheless, the pain of a loss. Personally, I have experienced the loss of many pets. Aside from that, when I was eleven years old, my three-year-old niece passed away; I thought this was devastating. When I was thirteen, my fifteen-year-old sister passed away. My grandparents, whom I never really go to know, passed away within the next two years, and in 1994 my father passed away. Between these, I