There aren't many of us who couldn't sympathize with Denise. I myself, not even having been a mother, can't put myself in her place and not feel torn to shreds in the gut. She was made by fate to endure it all.......the panic, the mental anguish of losing her baby, the press, the continual fight for Jamie's justice, and worst of all, not having her son with her. James was gone. The child she had carried, had nurtured as a baby through the toddler years, had spent so much of herself loving and caring for......he was dead. Dead -- such a cold, harsh word to match with an innocent, playful child. But Denise had to face that her child was dead, and not just the day she found out about his murder. She had to face it the next day, and the next, and all the days afterward, all the YEARS afterward, and she still faces it today after almost ten years. Sure, she had other children later, but a child is irreplaceable. Denise has never forgotten Jamie and what it was like to have him there with her, to love him. Why do you think it is that she fought SO HARD to get his murderers behind bars for good?

Such disappointment, such anguish, and such indescribable heartache this woman must have felt, and must still be feeling. If only she hadn't gone to the mall that day, if only she hadn't stopped at the butcher shop, or at least had gotten out a bit quicker........

But all the if's fall flat against a cold hard surface. For Denise, all the iffing in the world couldn't and wouldn't bring her son back.