Conversations on Pregnancy and Infant Loss: Charlie’s Story

A Fresh Story, season 4, episode 5

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and we’re honored to hold space for these profound stories. These stories may be of grief, but they are also of hope, resilience, and most of all, unconditional love. As a reminder, be gentle with your heart, and if you are not able to listen to this episode at the moment, we understand and we are holding you close. We know these conversations will change you as they have changed us.

Jena Graham is an academic programs coordinator for special education. She’s a mother, and a wife. And, to me, Jena is the cool older girl on my dorm floor freshman year of college. That’s where I met Jena, 20 years ago. When I found myself feeling lost and confused those first few weeks of school, Jena, with her cool and collected confidence, and her roomate, Leanna, took me under their wing. Jena was a year older than me, and she had an attitude about her I admired. She didn’t care what people thought of her, she just did her thing and everyone else could either get on board, or get out of the way. Jena and I had many sociology classes together, and over the next 3 years, became great friends. Jena was like the older sister I never had, and I adored her.

As life continued on, and Facebook let me know, that Jena married a man named Geoff, she had a son, named Max. And then, in January of 2020, she had a son named Charlie. Charlie was born January 8th, 2020, and passed away 3 days later. My heart simply broke for Jena, and I thought of her and Charlie often.

I had been posting on social media about producing this series about infant loss, and Jena reached out to thank me for using our platform to share these stories. I asked if she would like to come talk about Charlie, and she did. I’m in awe of Jena’s strength, her honesty, and her desire to keep talking about the hard stuff so that other people don’t feel alone. We talked about Charlie’s life, how he inspires her, and her advice for anyone experiencing infant loss is profound, to say the least.

Jena, thank you for sharing Charlie with us. We will remember him always.