Tears were streaming down all of our faces, my heart sank to the pit of my stomach, I couldn’t breathe, and I was beginning to feel faint. Sometimes when you hear something devastating like I did you can’t think; your pure human and instinctual reactions take over your body. These physical signs of raw emotion are what took me over when my parents woke me up for school one average March morning and told me the news. My five-year old cousin, Jack, had died that night. He was a bright young boy, although he was plagued with a serious heart condition. He underwent several surgeries as an infant to correct the deformity in his heart. The procedures were successful, but left him very small and weak for his age. Because of his already feeble condition contracting a chest cold was too much for him to handle. Although my aunt and uncle brought him to the hospital and were treating his illness exactly the way they should have, within hours of arriving in the ER he was gone.

Obviously, the tragedy of losing a loved one can take a serious toll on any family, and losing someone so young was especially horrifying. We were no exception to this as we had to deal with losing Jack, but ultimately what brought our family through our loss was each other. Several of us were on vacation at the time, because it was around spring break, and they immediately drove home so we could all be together. I can still feel the strong embrace of my grandpa after driving night and night to get home. My mom worked especially hard to help Jack’s parents. She let them mourn but at the same time did let them slip away and isolate themselves. I remember my little sister wiping the hot, sticky tears from my cheeks, as we had to say goodbye to Jack one last time. And that is a great representation of all of the family’s reactions to losing such an influential and loved little boy. We were there for each other. We were a close family to be begin with, but I know this revealed something else about us. I believe that strong we are strong. And I believe that strong families are revealed through a crisis.