buzzfeed Press
I Lost My 4-Year-Old Son Under Mysterious Circumstances And One Question Haunts Me Daily
Images
1 / 6
2 / 6
3 / 6
4 / 6
5 / 6
6 / 6
“What happened didn’t make sense to me. It didn’t even make sense to some of the best doctors in the world.” The author with Jake in 2006. "This is before he had his seizure," she writes. Jake at the party to celebrate his fourth birthday The author with her husband and son, Ethan, at Greenridge Cemetery in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where Jake is buried. Heather Straughter is the host of “A Place of Yes,” a podcast exploring grief, loss, and joy. She is the president of Jake’s Help From Heaven, a nonprofit supporting families of children with complex medical needs. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek and Business Insider. She lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with her husband, Brian, and their son, Ethan, who attends Syracuse University. This article originally appeared on HuffPost in May 2026.