I think back to the devastating 80s when the news came that the late actor Bill Bixby's ex-wife committed suicide following their young son's tragic & untimely death from a throat infection ... perhaps she was so distraught after losing her child she no longer wanted, or saw reason to live...

Fast forward to the Jan. 2009 and the death of Jett, the beloved son of John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. Sadly, this mother have yet to appear amongst a public audience after her loss and although the former actress still have other children...how can a mother ever get over losing a part of her heart, her blood that flows in her child's DNA...A child becomes a lifeline to a mother's sanity.

In 2009, Katherine Jackson lost her beloved Michael. At some point there were reports that he's still yet not buried and that Katherine visits him daily in a cold, barren place where his coffin lay in wait for its final resting place. It was reported how she'd dress warmly for her visits to Michael's shrine of 'frozen' death and emerge shivering from the coldness. Imagine the depth of this almost 80 year old woman's grief for her favorite, her Michael.(Reportedly, MJ is to be buried Sept.3rd)

I recall my own mother's grief so many years ago after losing one of my younger brothers. Her 'favorite' as well. The pain & grief is hard to bear for everyone in these tragic times but, looking back at my own grief in the midst of losing my brother, I could see the sudden emptiness in my mother's eyes. I witnessed the shrinkage of her once vibrant form as it slumped in defeat and sorrow. She had become a shell of pain & darkened, insideous torture

I write not to diminish the love of a father for his child suddenly lost to him...Mike Tyson just lost a young daughter & I'm saddened for him, for the mother who grieves out of public view... then there are the sorrows overwhelmingly felt by brothers,sisters, and relatives when a loved one dies...It is the reflections of a mother's loss and grief, however that rests heavily upon this mother's heart as I'm left to contemplate the power of mortality and the devastating effects a mother who loses a child is forced to bear...