I Am Still Her Momma: Empowering Grieving Parents to Heal Authentically and Live Fully

What happens when the one person you would give your life to protect is the very person you have to learn to live without? How do you wake up the morning after your world has shattered and find the strength to take another breath? How do you carry a love so deep when the arms that once held your child are suddenly empty? On November 3, 2016, Genine LaTrice Perez was forced to face these impossible questions when a distracted driver took the life of her nineteen-year-old daughter, Olivia DaVinci Vaughn Perez—just one day before Olivia’s twentieth birthday.

In I Am Still Her Momma: Empowering Grieving Parents to Heal Authentically and Live Fully, Genine invites readers into the sacred, painful, and deeply personal journey of a mother learning to carry both devastating loss and enduring love. Through intimate letters written to Olivia, heartfelt journal entries, prayers, real-time reflections, and treasured memories, Genine shares the unfiltered reality of child loss, the moments when grief feels unbearable, the questions that challenge faith, and the courage it takes to choose another day. Yet this is not a story defined by tragedy. It is a celebration of Olivia’s extraordinary life, a young woman remembered not for the way she left this world, but for the joy, laughter, compassion, and love she gave so freely while she was here.

This powerful story offers a hand to hold for anyone navigating the unimaginable journey of grief. For grieving parents searching for understanding, for families struggling to support someone through loss, and for anyone longing for hope after heartbreak, this book provides comfort, validation, and a reminder that they are not alone. Through Genine’s honest reflections, readers will find permission to grieve without apology, embrace healing without guilt, and rediscover purpose while honoring the love that remains.

This is a story of survival, faith, and the lifelong bond between a mother and her child! An invitation to believe that even after the greatest loss, life can still hold meaning, memories can still bring joy, and love can continue to transform pain into purpose.