Miscarriage 7-23-2016

In a Blog post earlier this week, Martens Funeral Home staff member Courtney Burns wrote a very personal and touching piece on her experiences with miscarriages. In it, she used a beautiful pencil drawing entitled "Miscarriage 7-23-16." We've had several comments about the photo and wanting to know more about the drawing. So for tonight's blog post, this is the story of that drawing.

8-26-12 We're Pregnant :)
Curtis Wiklund

Curtis Wiklund found himself sketching moments in his life with his wife Jordin when she started a "Photo 365" project in 2012. After a complete year of sketching, many of his sketches were of moments of the life he was sharing with Jordin. They were beautiful and spoke volumes to the thousands of people who saw them online via Wiklund's site.

By age 28, Wiklund and Jordin were the proud parents of two beautiful children.

Their lives were about to change with the exciting news that they were expecting for the third time. With a daughter Ellie.

Until they weren't.

Which inspired Wiklund's most talked about sketch of raw emotion of a miscarriage.

"When we [found out] we miscarried, we immediately went into the car. We've experienced sad things on our own, but never a mutual grief that we were sharing a heaviness over." Wiklund shared with WJBD Health News reporter Kelly Terez.  "I couldn't figure out how to word it. I kept trying to describe it, or write it. It was frustrating, so I said, "OK, I'll sketch it. By the time I was done, I had exhausted all my tears. I saw it was more accurate than anything I could've ever written."

It spoke volumes to those who had been in the same place the Wiklund's were in.

After sharing the sketch on Instagram and Facebook, the Wiklund's found that thousands of people were opening up and sharing their own stories of miscarrying. They were surprised by the responses.

Again, from WJBD Health News, "I noticed it was almost like a relief. It was like, 'We can talk about this. Now we can share this.' I think it was healing for people to express and acknowledge their own hurt and not hide behind it. It's easy to have miscarriages perceived that way. It's easy to dismiss them because you haven't had the baby yet, but it's a very real loss. That baby was already a part of our family as soon as we found out we were pregnant." Wiklund said.

But his love for his daughter is ever there.

"I love that her life has meaning. Look at what she's done. In her little life, her story is comforting literally thousands of grieveing parents around the world. But I would rather have her here, with me. At the ultrasound, Jordin has a distinct feeling that our baby was a girl. We named her Ellie. It was a favorite name of ours, that we were saving for a girl. We decided to give it to her, and Jordin looked up its meaning. Ellie means, "God is my light." This was perfect for her and for us. We cling to the hope that we will have much more time with her after this life. As painful as it is to not have her here, we know life is short and what comes after is longer."

"This was the day we found out we miscarried. It's strange to share because it's such a quiet thing. Most don't talk about it. I just didn't know what else to do, but draw on that day. It more accurately journaled how I felt that anything I could write.

I hope by sharing it, those others out there who are quietly hurting, some far worse than we are, are comforted knowing at least, that you are not alone.

More of Curtis Wiklund's work can be viewed at http://drawings365.com/