“The heaven that you created for me, is unimaginable to others, my son” with love Mom.
I started Joseph DeNicola.com to be a place to share Joseph. As it has evolved, starting our first reaction was to provide Joseph’s story of what took place in those last moments for those in the food allergy community looking to understand more than empty news articles that had not much sense to details.
Daily it evolves on it’s own. A place to leave memories, share not only Joseph, but the journey as a mother of an angel. A woman who had been that first time parent, with a child diagnosed with an unknown allergen, then a mother with a child diagnosed with anaphylaxis after his first shock/reaction. The school years, the support during the community, the battles within the food allergy community that we as a tribe stand strong together. As, time passes, laws created, life changes, so do we attempt to touch and leave a place to share.
Joseph was/is such a beautiful soul, beyond his years and as his mother I cannot express how much my son has taught me through the journey, through the grief, through the still spinning world around, just so much. I believe a journey is not captured in one story, but as we evolve and move forward daily, we can express so much more. So this is a memory of Joseph, and a page on how much he has changed this world as through a mother of an angels perscpective.
In so many blessed ways, he still touches lives far more than anyone can in their lifetime. I post from my heart and still know I am standing right behind my children no matter the difference of heaven to earth watching over them with the feelings, experiences, changes that come to me, through me as our mother’s instincts never go away. I actually believe they reach further, from heaven to earth.
Many find it hard to hear from grieving parents. We do not mean harm or want to cause fear. We are much more than grieving parents, as we had been before. It seems to be a social algorithm, a cycle that comes with the new identity. We are left with this voice, that some demand in a way to have a better understanding how this can affect them, how they can avoid it and learn. Others just cannot even listen, since the thought is unfathomable. We are the arms that open to the next facing the same. We work together to pick each other up on days that are now, not called Monday or Friday, but good or bad. The cycle of grief is never-ending. It is to relearn how to live in a much different world. We hold to love and cherish all life. we are now called advocates, the strongest voice to stopping from happening again to another.
Spiritually, we are held by many in their arms and hearts. Such compassion comes from the darkest moments. We keep to gratitude to all that have walked in to find us in moments lifeless ourselves, to help. Be it a tweet on social media or a knock on the door or a letter in the mail, a card just at that right moment to get us up. So many miracle workers that are in this world.
Maybe to some, we are that screeching tire, right before the same mistakes could possibly happen.
Sometimes, it is us reaching out to hold another, telling them how an experience can still hold a light. They are never alone.
Overall, we are still very much the most loving, giving, and heartfelt people you will come across. Understanding has taken the deepest footprints in our lives. This world that had once been so different, has a new meaning in areas that might have been overlooked before. We will remind you that the smallest things are the greatest treasures. How each day that you might believe is such a struggle, is a blessing just as you need someone to lift your spirit.
It has been very hard to reopen my front door to take the first few steps in this new world without my son. It comes in waves, opening that door once again is so hard, each day. It is not something that you do just once and you are fine to doing again tomorrow.
So, each day I take to journal the deepest feelings, here too…
My love to you all,
Joseph’s Mom Julianne.
In Loving Memory of Joseph DeNicola 