Story of a man's loss and the small things he did to cope.

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Tom Zuba has experienced unthinkable amounts of grief.

The Rockford native first dealt with the death of his 18-month-old daughter, Erin, in 1990 from hemolytic-uremic syndrome. Nine years later, Zuba's wife, Trici, died from the effects of a hereditary blood disorder at age 43. In 2005, his 13-year-old son, Rory, died of brain cancer.

"I have been in the deepest, darkest, most confusing, most overwhelming hole that we call grief," he told nurses Sept. 15 at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center's Nursing Ethics Fall Conference, titled Consciously Nurturing the Heart of Healing. "Not once. Not twice. But three times. I would not wish this amount of pain on anyone." Full story at the link above.