I Had Maddie for Fourteen Years
Chris Coulter lost his daughter Maddie in 2015, when she was 14. For about ten years he carried one sentence: her life was taken from him. Anger and guilt came with it. What loosened it were the stories other kids told him about Maddie, including how she stood up for a swim teammate. A father’s honest account of anger, gratitude after losing a child, and why the anger still visits.
The Funniest Person in the Cemetery
Maddie died in 2015 at 14. For nearly ten years, her father Chris couldn't think of her without guilt and sadness. Then he started remembering how funny she was: the laugh you could hear across the house, the dating profiles she vetoed, the cottage weeks she spent tormenting her grandma. A father's take on laughing after losing a child, and why her death doesn't get to own her story.
The Photo That Never Changes
In January 2017, twenty-one months after my daughter Maddie died at fourteen, I wrote about the photos on my fridge. Everyone else's get swapped out at the end of the school year. Hers does not. Nine years on, I'm putting the piece back up unchanged, with one correction: I was wrong about what her brothers were carrying, and wrong about why.
Grief Doesn’t Peak at the Funeral. It Begins the Day After.
Grief often begins after the funeral, when the calls stop and the house grows quiet. In this reflection, Chris Coulter shares what he learned after losing his daughter Maddie and what he now sees as his father grieves the loss of his wife, Chris’ mom. The silence that follows loss can feel disorienting, but understanding it can help people support those grieving long after the funeral ends.