Greg Hughes' son Riley was just 32 days old when he died from whooping cough, a highly contagious disease.
A father's emotional post about the son he lost three years ago is touching hearts around the world.
Greg Hughes' son Riley was just 32 days old when he died from whooping cough, a highly contagious disease.
"When my son was first diagnosed with whooping cough, it was probably a sense of relief in the first part because naively I just assumed that by having the diagnosis we'd now be able to treat it and he'd be fixed," Hughes told InsideEdition.com. "I probably didn't understand at the time the gravity of the diagnosis and exactly how serious a predicament he was in."
Hughes, who is from Australia, has a blog called Dad Minus One, in which shares his grief over the loss of his son — and encourages others to do the same.
"I learned quite early in the process of losing my son that men in particular aren't overly effective communicators when it comes to how they're feeling particularly when it comes to the loss of a child," he said. "So I felt like putting myself out there I might encourage other dads to speak up and speak openly about what they were experiencing."
Though Riley has been gone for three years, Hughes still thinks about him every day, writing letters to the boy he lost to cope with his pain.
On Monday, he shared one of those letters — one he read at his son's funeral — in a Facebook post that has been attracting attention.
"I had been going through his box of memories," Hughes said of his decision to share the heartbreaking note. "It's probably the last piece I have the still physically connects me to him, but even though he's been gone all this time I wanted to acknowledge that he's still such an important part of my work and part of my family.
"I think about him every day."
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