Photo:Instagram/morganebeck
Instagram/morganebeck
Morgan Milleris marking a bittersweet milestone for daughter Scarlet.
On Tuesday, the 36-year-old mom shared a video on her Instagram Story of daughterScarlet Olivia, 18 months, getting a swim lesson in the family pool. Watching the process brought back memories of her and husband Bode Miller’s late daughter Emmy, who died in adrowning at 19 months old in June 2018.
“Scarlet is exactly one month younger than Emmy was the day she drowned. We never put Emmy in lessons, and when we tried a month before she died, our swim instructor told us she was too young to learn,” Morgan wrote in the caption.
“This is proof that if they can sit unassisted, they’re not too young to learn and that drowning is completely preventable with ALL the layers of protection,” she continued, urging, “If you have littles, take this as a sign to sign them up to become water safe as we get closer and closer to pool season.”
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Later, Morgan shared another photo of Scarlet swimming in an Instagram post where she opened up about grieving Emmy.
“Watching Scarlet swim today made me realize it’s been months where I have been running from the debilitating pain of losing a child…that gut punch that makes it hard to breathe,” she admitted.
“I’ve gone dark. I’ve refused to cry. I’ve just wanted to be numb. Those grief waves hit where normally I would embrace the pain and grieve, but instead… I turn my back, choke back my tears and decide to do it another day,” she continued.
“It hurts too much. The profound cellular sadness feels too heavy. And to know that I’ll be grieving the loss of my father makes all the pain and grief as a whole feel unmanageable,” she noted. “But watching her swim today also made me realize that this numbness doesn’t protect me from feeling the pain, it prevents me from feeling the joy…and without joy, what’s the point?““So after many dark months, here’s to a scary leap of living fully, openly, and vulnerably and embracing the depths of the fundamental human experience of love and loss,” she concluded.
In addition to Emmy and Scarlet, the couple is also parents to twin boysAsher and Aksel, 3, plus sonsEaston, 4, andNash, 8. (Bode is also dad to son Nate, 10, and daughter Dace, 15, from previous relationships.)
“Life is constantly walking a knife edge and it’s not something we’re unfamiliar with,” Morgan wrote. “Yesterday, Asher had a febrile seizure which scared us half to death. We took that same ambulance to the same hospital we took Emmy to but this time we got to leave with our child.”
source: people.com
