Two Weeks After Our Baby Died, My 8-Year-Old Whispered, “Mom, She Isn’t Gone—I Saw What Daddy Did at the Hospital”

Then I realized resentment had attached itself to the wrong decision.

Holding Melanie was not the harm.

Neither was photographing her.

Or taking footprints.

Or keeping a lock of hair.

Those were loving acts.

The harm began later.

When I woke.