Radio Personality Delilah Credits Faith with Saving Her After the Grief of Losing Two Sons
Popular radio personality Delilah Rene has experienced many ups and downs in her 59 years of life, but some of her darkest moments have been after the loss of two of her children — the first in 2012 and again only five years later.
Sixteen-year-old son Sammy died of complications from sickle cell anemia, and Zack took his own life at just 18.
A busy mom to more than 13 children, 10 of whom are adopted, Rene has spoken about the loss of her son in 2017 and how it shaped her professional trajectory.
She’s shared her grief with her huge audience, and has encouraged other parents to be more proactive about teen depression and suicide.
But it hasn’t been easy.
She was also trying to write a book, “One Heart at a Time,” about her life experiences, but the grief over her son’s passing made it feel impossible.
“I couldn’t write, I couldn’t talk about it,” she told ABC News.
“The publishers … talked to my sister,” she continued. “And she said, ‘I’ll help. You know, I’ll step in and help,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no. Nobody’s telling Zack’s story but me.'”
“It was really hard but important to find the energy to finish it,” she explained. “But I really wanted to honor my son’s life and tell part of his story, as well as my own. That kind of gave me the push to get it finished and get it out there. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever written, but I think the best thing I’ve ever written.”
“I do want parents to know,” she added, “We need to talk about teenage suicide. And we need to start having open conversations as painful as they are. Because it’s epidemic.”
She told ABC that it’s the quiet moments after she’s finished with work that are especially difficult.
“It’s so funny because nights are the worst,” she explained. “You know, I finish the show. And that’s when it hits. Because that was our time together. My son was a night owl.”
Through difficult marriages, job insecurity and the loss of loved ones, Rene says her faith is the one thing that’s kept her moving forward.
“I came to my faith in my 20s and it is my faith that has kept me going through losing two boys, two of my sons, Sammy and Zack,” she told Fox News. “There is a verse that says, ‘Every one of our days is numbered before a single one comes to pass.’ That one verse has saved my sanity because all of my sons’ days were numbered.”
“God knew when they were going to leave this earth before they came to this earth and knowing that changes everything. Because if I didn’t believe that, then I would do the what-ifs. What if I had done this differently? What if I had done that differently?”
“I would drive myself insane with the what-ifs. But the reality is I did the best that I could with the information I had. All of our days are numbered. God already knows when he’s going to call me home. So while I have today, while he’s given me this 24 hours, I can spend it mourning and depressed over what I’ve lost or I can spend it rejoicing in children who still need me, who still need their mom to be fully present. So, I choose life. I choose joy. I choose to invest my energies into those people that God has in my life today.”
Rene currently lives on a farm in Washington with her massive family, living life the way she did growing up: with farm animals, home-grown food and fresh air.
“What’s that like?” Rene said, speaking about how it is to be caring for so many children. “It’s a whole lot of fried potatoes. It’s a whole lot of love and a whole lot of cooking. We probably run through five loads, four or five loads of laundry a day, 10 pounds of potatoes a week easily, even though I’m not eating carbs.”
“The supersize jumbo salad mixes. I try to cook every day for my kids, at least one or two meals a day. Homemade meals, so a lot of food, a lot of laughter.”
It seems like she’s doing things right, and thanks to her close relationship with God and his presence in her life, she’ll be able to continue encouraging others and raising her eclectic family with faith, hope and love.
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