This is a part of podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center on Disorders of Consciousness. Gail Strom describes the complicated emotions of mourning the child her daughter was before injury—while learning to embrace who Hannah has become. 

I met another mom in here that we would, both of us would talk about that and how we both felt sort of guilty in a way. We almost like we couldn't talk about it with others. In our case, Hannah survived and she had a dear friend that did not in this accident. And so for us, we were grieving. I was grieving the old Hannah. I can say now I'm embracing the new Hannah. But back then I was grieving the Hannah I lost, as she was healing. I didn't really tell people that because you feel you don't have the, I almost felt like I didn't have the right for that grief because she survived, so to speak. But really I was grieving my old, my Hannah, my daughter before January 15th. And now I will say, do I have a little bit of that still? I would say yes. I think I always will, but I definitely am embracing the new Hannah. She has come so far and really has surpassed anything I could ever have imagined at this point. 

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