Before the Sun Rises
Writing for the hours before the light comes back.
About This Blog
Grief has hours that belong to it. The late evenings when the house goes quiet. The early mornings before the day begins. The in-between times when the loss surfaces, uninvited and real, and there is nowhere particular to put it.
Before the Sun Rises is written for those hours.
You will not find false comfort here, or a roadmap to healing, or a timeline you are already behind on. What you will find is honest company — writing that names what grief actually feels like, from someone who is still in it.
I am Kim Valentine. I lost my daughter Jessica in March 2024. I am a grief educator, and I write from the intersection of professional training and personal knowing. Sometimes those two things sit neatly together. Sometimes they don’t. I try to be honest about both.
| These posts are for bereaved mothers of grown children — and for mothers walking alongside a child through serious illness. They are also for anyone else who finds something useful here. Grief does not always stay inside the categories we build for it. |
What You’ll Find Here
| For Bereaved Mothers | Posts written directly for the mother whose adult child has died — the second year, the waves, the identity questions, the faith that has gotten complicated, and the ordinary moments that still carry the most weight. |
| Anticipatory Grief | For mothers walking alongside a child through serious illness — grieving before any death has occurred, carrying something the world hasn’t given a name to yet. This grief is real. You are welcome here. |
| Faith & Grief | Honest writing for those whose faith is shaken, tested, or complicated by loss. No rushing to resolution. No tidy answers. Just a space to hold the questions. |
| For Those Who Walk Alongside | Practical, grounded writing for the people who love a grieving mother — what helps, what doesn’t, and how to show up without trying to fix what can’t be fixed. |
| Grief Education | Evidence-informed writing on how grief actually works — the stages myth, the timeline myth, the body, the neuroscience, and what the research actually says about how we carry loss. |
A Note on Faith
My faith is part of who I am and part of how I write. Some posts include a faith reflection at the close — offered gently, never required. If faith is not part of your experience, you are still welcome here. The grief is what matters. Everything else is optional.
| “Before the sun rises, there is still the dark.You are not alone in it.”— Kim |