Now, I want to ask, how did you arrive at that perspective? And what does gratitude actually look like when the pain of loss is still very real?

I think gratitude started very early for us when...

You mentioned earlier, she wasn't feeling well for a little while before this diagnosis.

It was nothing serious.

The doctors weren't particularly concerned about it.

They thought maybe it was mononucleosis or maybe she was just fatigued from being a busy college student.

But when she started getting unexplained bruises on her body, something clicked in Charlotte's mom intuition.

Now, how do you hold those two ideas together?

So, Mark, please, can you share with us on the show today your journey? How did you and your wife cope with the grief, the loss of a child, and from everything that happened, how would you explain or define grief to a person?

Wow, okay.

A lot to talk about there.

Corinne was diagnosed, as we mentioned, at the end of her junior year.

uh and she lives about 500 miles away from us so one of the first decisions before and at this time we were we had no idea what we were in for and so immediately when we we got the news she had been ill on and off for several weeks beforehand but nothing serious we didn't think The doctor told her maybe it was mono or maybe it was the flu or she was just an active college student and she was tired.

But then some mysterious bruises started showing up that they couldn't explain.

She's like, I have no idea why I have these bruises.

So yes, Corinne was your daughter, but at the same time, How was the whole journey of being a carer for you guys?

Now, uh, can you share with us, was there a particular moment where you realized that gratitude could, could resist its grief?

Absolutely.

And that, s- that started, that started early.

I mean, the first gratitude we felt, as terrified as we were, the first gratitude we felt was that we hadn't brought her in two weeks later, uh, that she did have a fighting chance because of when she brought... was brought in.

And so we were grateful for that.

Um, and then we spent a lot of time in, in hospitals with, uh, sick children who were much younger than Corinne.

And so we walked past hospital rooms that didn't have hospital beds, they had hospital cribs.

So talking about grief, how has grief, uh, changed your marriage? Uh, and also, uh, what have you and your wife learned about supporting each other while grieving the same person in different ways or different ways?

What was that period like for you and your family?

Well, it was very difficult for a lot of reasons, obviously, battling leukemia.

She was studying about 500 miles away from where my wife and I lived.

And when we found out about her leukemia, we were shocked.

But we also knew that we had work to do.

We knew that we couldn't afford to be overcome by emotion because our little girl needed us.

And we made the immediate decision that one of us would have to go down right away.

What was that period like for you and your family?

How were you able to find gratitude in the midst of such profound

grief? I think it started right from the day of her diagnosis.

And we were able to...

She was in the hospital for treatment about 500 miles away from where we live.

And we were in a situation where my wife could travel to be with her immediately.

And then we took turns.

So Corinne never had to go to a procedure or a doctor's appointment alone.

What was that period like to you as a father?

How did that season affect your marriage?

Well, it was a challenge because there were months literally where we had only spent days together.

And so I would stay here.

I do have a son still living at home.

And so we would switch places.

Charlotte would go down and she would spend time with Corinne and go to the doctor's appointments and manage that.

I would stay here with my son and we'd try to keep the household running.

So how did you arrive at that perspective?