How This Blogger Is Using Food To Heal From Grief (And Starting A Movement In The Process)

When Lindsay Ostrom announced her pregnancy, her audience was jubilant. One of the most popular food bloggers, the founder of Pinch of Yum had garnered millions of readers and followers for her decadent, nourishing food and the candid way she shares her Midwestern life, from her doting husband and business partner, Bjork, and adorable pup, Sage, to the humanitarian work she moved to the Philippines for.

In October, when she shared a smiling picture of her, Bjork, and a sonogram, her readers filled the comments with messages and love and excitement. In December, she shared the baby's gender—a boy!—and mirror selfies of her now quite visible bump. In late December, a new post appeared on her site: "An Urgent Baby Update." In it, she shared how a regular scheduled doctor's visit had revealed that her body was trying to go into labor—and it was too early for the baby to be viable. "If I deliver within the next few days, his chances of surviving at all, much less without major lifetime health complications, are extremely low," she wrote. "This is not how we want to be experiencing pregnancy and birth and newborn life, and it's jarring and hard. We're letting go of what now seems like such a dream for a "normal" pregnancy and a "normal" baby and embracing what's happening right here in front of us. But forward is the only way. So one day, one hour, one minute at a time."

On January 9, a new post appeared on her Instagram feed.

She stopped posting for a while then, save for a series addressing her son directly. Many (myself included) wondered how she would—how she could—go back to posting taco skillet dinners and sweet potato casseroles after what she'd been through. And then she introduced her new series: Feeding a Broken Heart.

"In the days and weeks after our son Afton passed away, I found myself unable to eat. How do you eat when you have a broken heart? Your body practically forgets," she wrote. "Exactly one day after being home from the hospital, friends started showing up at our house with food. ONE DAY. This food was a lifeline. These acts of love put warm, sustaining food in front of me, and that food tethered me to real life. It was through soup, cookies, salads, and little cheesy homemade pizza rolls that I was able to find my way again, both physically and emotionally."

And, she added, "if the broken heart is yours, you can make some of this food for yourself. That totally counts."