Larry Klopot

Father. Grandfather. Husband. Lifelong storyteller. Hesitant podcaster. Reluctant author of Why Am I Here and He Is Not. Sharing stories of love, loss

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

There are days when I write about Alex.

There are days when I don’t want to write about Alex.

There isn’t a day when I don’t think about Alex.
#GriefJourney #RememberingAlex #LifeAfterLoss

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

“Raw, honest and incredibly moving.” A reader says the book puts into words thoughts and feelings many people would find impossible to express. Why Am I Here and He Is Not is my story of grief, love and hope.
https://t.co/Bi5uxeJLpL

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

don’t think grief needs fixing.

Sometimes it just needs room.

#GriefJourney #GriefSupport #LivingWithGrief #WhyAmIHereAndHeIsNot

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I cannot transfer all the hopes I had for Alex onto his daughter. They belong to different lives.

Addy will forge her own way in this world.

But when I look at her, I see joy. I see him. And despite everything I now know about the future, I can once again imagine possibilities.

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I’ve learned there is a difference between being alone and feeling alone.

Grief is quite capable of making you feel alone in a room full of people.

#WhyAmIHereAndHeIsNot #GriefJourney #GriefSupport

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

Even the dark futures I imagined during Alex’s mental-health struggles were still futures. There was always a tomorrow when something might change. Losing a child also means mourning every tomorrow you believed might still come.

https://t.co/Bi5uxeJdAd

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I didn’t write Why Am I Here and He Is Not because I figured grief out.

I wrote it from inside grief.

There’s a difference.

https://t.co/Bi5uxeJLpL

#GriefAndLoss #WhyAmIHereAndHeIsNot #StillHisDad

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

There are people who appeared after Alex died whom I never expected to see.

And people I expected to see who disappeared.

Grief teaches you things about relationships you weren’t necessarily interested in learning.

#GriefJourney #GriefAndLoss #LifeAfterLoss

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

For years, I arrived at work with the speakers cranked up, singing “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.” I believed it then. I now know how quickly a bright future can darken—but darkness does not erase every source of light.

https://t.co/Bi5uxeJLpL

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I once heard “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” as a song about possibility. Now it reminds me of the future Alex should have had—and the one that continues through Addy. I write about that in Why Am I Here and He Is Not. https://t.co/Bi5uxeJLpL

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I have discovered that laughter after loss isn’t betrayal.

Neither is enjoying a round of golf.
Neither is having a wonderful day.

Missing Alex and enjoying my life are both allowed to be true.

#GriefJourney #JoyAfterLoss #PermissionToHeal

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I spent much of my career believing problems existed to be solved.

Then my son died.

Some things cannot be solved.
They can only be lived with.

That required a completely different skill set.

#GriefJourney #Childloss #GriefAndHealing

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

A photograph freezes a moment.

Grief gives it a before and an after.

#LifeAfterLoss
#GriefAwareness
#HealingThroughMemories

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I am Alex’s father.

Not was.

Am.

Death changed many things.

It didn’t change that.

#fatherandson #grievingfather #griefjourney

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I sometimes wonder whether we ask grieving people how they’re doing because we really want to know — or because we’re hoping they’ll say, “I’m doing fine.”

It’s a complicated question.

And sometimes a complicated answer.

#GriefSupport #GriefJourney #GrievingHeart

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

Why Am I Here and He Is Not isn’t a book about how to grieve.

I wouldn’t presume to tell anyone how.

It’s one father’s account of trying to understand what life looks like after the unimaginable happens.

https://t.co/Bi5uxeJLpL

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I am not interested in “getting over” the death of my son.

I am interested in living a good life while carrying the reality that he died.

Those are very different objectives.

#ChildLoss #GrievingParent #LivingWithGrief

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

Grief doesn’t always announce itself.

Sometimes it’s a song. A photograph. A name. A memory that arrives for no apparent reason.

And suddenly yesterday and today are occupying exactly the same space.

#GriefJourney #GriefAwareness #LifeAfterLoss

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

I occasionally worry that people think:

“He’s talking about Alex again.”

Then I remember something.

I’m his dad.

Of course I’m talking about Alex again.

#GrievingDad #LosingAChild #RememberingAlex

[Larry Klopot @stillhisdad]

When I started writing after Alex died, I wasn’t writing a book.

I was trying to survive the day.

The book came later.

Why Am I Here and He Is Not

https://t.co/2UOS2Ll4OH