I'll See You Again

A parent's worst nightmare.

Ask any parent and they'll tell you that the death of a child is the single worst event that can happen to a parent. Jackie Hance, mother of three vibrant, lovely little girls--Emma (8), Alyson (7), and Katie (5)--would have said the same. Jackie's sister-in-law, Diane Schuler, took her two children and the three Hance girls on a weekend camping trip just a couple hours away. But on the ride back from the trip, Jackie received a horrific phone call from her eldest daughter, Emma, whose last words to her mother were, "Something's wrong with Aunt Diane." Diane Schuler drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway, killing herself, her daughter, three men in another car, and all three of Jackie Hance's darling daughters.

How do you go on?

Every day for months, Jackie woke up and asked, "Where are the girls?" Her concerned circle of friends gently reminded her each morning that the girls had been killed in the tragic accident. She went through the funerals and burials practically sleep-walking, the only emotion in her life the absolutely crushing grief that ruled her days. Strangers approached her in public to commend her bravery, to say that they could never get through such a thing. Jackie didn't understand their sentiment, maintaining that she was no different from anyone else, no braver.

A tentative step forward.

A year after the tragic death of her daughters, Jackie and her husband Warren, both still deep in the throes of grief, accepted the services of an IVF specialist and became pregnant with her fourth child--a daughter they named Kasey. Terrified of loss, Jackie found herself on the edge of insanity during her pregnancy, but has managed to move cautiously forward--showering Kasey with all the love that made her sisters so happy during their short lives.