The enduring pain of child loss is the daily realization that, even though the event happened in a singular point in time, the loss continues every day. There is no past tense when it comes to your child’s death…  You are always losing that child over time.  Time robs the grieving parent, an imperceptibly small amount everyday, of the smells, feelings and emotions of what it was like to have them in your life.

There is so much about Rees’ brief life that I have already forgotten or tucked deep away in a corner of my mind.  It pains me to think that everyday finds myself losing just a little bit more of those memories of what it was like to have him with me.  I have tried so hard to hold onto everything I can of slightly less than two years worth of memories I have of him.  I … Read More

In honor of this May’s National Water Safety Month, ReesSpecht Life and the Long Island Drowning Prevention Task force are teaming up to issue you a challenge to help raise awareness for water safety…

 Here are the rules for challenge:

• Challenge your friends, co-workers, family to help promote Water Safety awareness!
• Option 1:  Donate to the ReesSpecht the Water Campaign (We are a designated 501(c)(3) charity)
• Option 2:  Apply any white cream to your nose (Zinc Oxide, Desitin, Beauty Cream, etc.) and take a picture of yourself wearing it.
• Share your picture with us here below.  We will put your picture in the Gallery for the world to see you are a water safety superhero.
• Try to wear the cream on your nose for the entire day.
• If anyone asks you a question about why you are wearing the zinc oxide, or other white cream on your nose, explain to

It would be an understatement to declare that the past few weeks have been a whirlwind for us…  My wife and I are still trying to come to grips with the idea that people, literally all over the world, know about Rees and our movement due to the incredibly generous act of one of my former students.  There are no words that can describe the feeling that we find ourselves washed in as people all over the globe share the story of $3,000 tip and the reason behind it.  All we ever wanted was for Rees’ brief, 22 month, life to have meaning – for him to make a difference.  In reality, all any of us ever really wants is to make a difference in this world.  Every person on planet earth makes a difference to someone… None of us are born in isolation and through our simple, day to … Read More

editor’s note: This post was originally published in July of 2014 but has been updated to include recent events.

The first few weeks of grief after losing a child are a mixture of rage, sadness, helplessness and fear: An unstable concoction that can react and explode at any given moment.  As someone who can now count himself among the unfortunate fraternity of those who lost a child I am sometimes asked by people to reach out to others who have recently suffered the same loss.  The almost universal inquiry that follows is if I can say something , anything, that will help them or guide them along their path.  Sadly, it is in those early days that words will have little or no effect.  I cannot describe the hysteria that is felt in the immediate aftermath other than to say it is a wheel of emotions in perpetual flux.  You … Read More

It is impossible to quantify kindness…  This is a truth I have come to realize in the 2 plus years my family and I have been on this journey we call “ReesSpecht Life”.  Kindness cannot possibly be measured because it is something, like love, that exists in our hearts and not in our heads.  There is no computation for kindness… you can’t ascertain a mean, median or mode for it.  Kindness just “is”… it’s inherent in the heart of every person – though, for many different reasons, it lay dormant in too many of us.

When my wife and I set out to form ReesSpecht Life, we did so with a mission to honor our little boy’s brief life and pay back the kindness of those people who rushed to our aid in our time of need.  I never intended for this movement to become what it has.  We just … Read More

Recollection of my dreams often evades me, but rarely do I ever forget a nightmare.  Last night was one of those moments in which I awoke from a nightmare so vivid, so intense, that even in those first few waking moments I was not certain of just what was “reality”.  In that dream my youngest child drowned – and to say it was jarring is an understatement.  As lucidity returned I found myself still in a panic and went directly to her crib to allay my fears.  Upon entering her room I was immediately comforted by my little girl’s peaceful slumber interrupted only by a few, cute, little moans.  My instinct was to pick her up and cradle her in my grateful arms, but I resisted as to not wake her.  A comforting smile crept across my face as I stealthily slinked out of her room, comforted by the reassurance … Read More