Two years after my little boy died, the only pieces of him I had left were preserved in a cedar chest I held dear. When my mother-in-law tossed it in the dumpster and called his things “garbage,” I swore I’d make her regret it. And I did… right in front of the whole family.
My name is Rebecca, but everyone calls me Becky. I’m 30 years old, and two years ago, my whole world ended when I lost my son Caleb. He was five years old then. He was the most beautiful, kind little boy you could imagine.
It was a horrible, senseless accident that I still can’t fully talk about without falling apart. One second he was chasing bubbles in our backyard, laughing that sweet giggle that could light up any room. And the next second, I was screaming into my phone for an ambulance.
I died that day too, in every way that matters.
The grief counselor says I’m “functioning well,” but that’s just therapist language for “not completely broken.” I go to work, pay bills, and breathe through each day. But everything still feels hollow, like I’m walking through life in a glass box.
The only thing that keeps me tethered to this world is a small cedar chest we keep in our bedroom, filled with Caleb’s most precious things: His dinosaur hoodie with the little felt spikes down the back that he wore everywhere, his tiny sneakers with the laces he never learned to tie properly, some crayon drawings he made of “our family as superheroes” where he drew himself with wings, and his silver bracelet that belonged to my grandmother before him.
Sometimes, when the grief feels like it’s crushing me, I open that chest and hold his hoodie, pressing my face into the fabric where I can still smell traces of his bubblegum shampoo if I try hard enough.
It’s all I have left of my baby.
My husband Ethan is a good man who loved Caleb fiercely and is trying his best to help me heal, but his mother Lorraine is a different story entirely.
She has always been the kind of woman who thinks she knows what’s best for everyone, with her sharp tongue, judgmental eyes, and need to control every situation she walks into.When Caleb died, she actually had the nerve to tell me, “God needed another angel, so it’s time for you to move on because keeping his things is unhealthy.”
But last month, something happened that changed everything when I came home from my shift at the clinic and immediately felt something was wrong. The house felt different and empty in a way that made my skin crawl.
When I walked into our bedroom and saw that the cedar chest was gone, I stopped cold.
“Ethan?” I called out, my voice already shaking. “Did you move Caleb’s chest?”
He looked up from his laptop, confused. “What? No, why would I move it?”
My stomach dropped to the floor as I tore through the house like a wild animal, checking closets, corners, and any possible hiding place, but found nothing.
