Christina Perri gave birth to a stillborn baby girl named Rosie in 2020. At the time, Perri’s daughter Carmella was just 2.
Carmella is now 5, and she has some hard questions for her mom.
“Carmella finally asked me where Rosie's body went when she died,” the “A Thousand Years” singer began an Instagram post on April 27. “I knew she would get to it, I knew her brain would connect the dots one day, and realize we never talked about it.”
Perri recalled how she “froze,” when Carmella asked what happened to her late sister’s body.
“In my head I said, ‘Lie lie lie lie lie.’ In my heart I said, ‘Tell her the truth,’” Perri wrote. “Out of my mouth I said, ‘Oh Carmella I’m sorry I think I should wait til you’re older to tell you.’”
At this point, Carmella began to cry. She wanted answers.
“She was devastated, instantly tears steaming down her face,” Perri wrote.
While holding Carmella’s hand, Perri “explained ever so gently and just the facts.”
“Out came so much grief and pain,” Perri wrote. “She was screaming ‘Why is she not here with us?! I don’t want her to be dead! I don’t want her to be dead.’”
Perri said she “calmed" and "comforted" Carmella and said everything she could to “help her understand and help her accept the unacceptable.”
Later that evening, Carmella asked if she could hold Rosie’s cremation box.
“Somehow she found some joy. She loved the color and the writing and asked about her name and said it was ‘gorgeous,’ and she asked if she could keep it in her room and keep her close to her forever,” Perri wrote.
“Sharing grief with other children is so so so hard but so important. My son has so much empathy towards others having gone through the heartbreak with us,” one person wrote in the comments.
Added another, “Thank you for sharing the story of your daughters here so bravely. Not only did it make me cry as a loss mom myself, but it’s cracking open the stigma of talking about our children who have died."
In January 2020, Perri experienced miscarriage at 11 weeks, and in November of that same year, she lost Rosie. Perri later learned she has a blood-clotting disorder that may have caused her pregnancy losses. She concluded her post with by urging women to be tested for blood-clotting disorders.
In Oct. 22, Perri and her husband, Paul Costabile, welcomed a daughter named Pixie Rose."She's here!" Perri wrote on Instagram at the time. "With a whole lot of faith, trust and pixie dust she has arrived safely. Please welcome our magical double rainbow baby girl."