‘Calling Heaven’ shares story of loss, grief

LAKEVILLE — Days after her 14-year-old son Bryce died of a sudden heart attack, Crystal Ng wondered how she could cope with the loss of her child while also supporting her four other children. 

She remembers sitting on the couch with 4-year-old daughter Shea, who kept saying she wanted to talk to her brother. 

 So, Ng found a child's play phone and pretended to call heaven. 

 "It was a spur-of-the-moment idea," said Ng. That spontaneous idea would inspire the Freetown Lakeville School Committee member to write her first book, "Calling Heaven," published on Feb. 21.  

 "Calling Heaven" is a children's book documenting the many phone calls that Ng and her daughter have made to heaven in the two and a half years since Bryce passed on July 8, 2022, a month before his 15th birthday.   

The book is available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble online. A book signing will take place at Crispi's restaurant in Bridgewater on Wednesday, March 19 from 5 to 8 p.m. 

Ng hopes the book teaches readers that "it's OK to grieve. I wrote this book to help myself and my kids process grief.” The book was a way to show her children that they could still communicate with their big brother, and that he was watching over them. 

  "Nobody ever thinks about the siblings when a child has passed," said Ng, who works as a special education advocate at the Federation for Children with Special Needs. "People think children are resilient.” But death is “a traumatic event that they don't know how to process."  

Though “Calling Heaven” is a children’s book, Ng also sees it is as a book for parents who have suffered what she calls an “out-of-order-loss." Losing a child is something "you're never prepared for, whether your child has a chronic illness or not." 

Bryce suffered from muscular dystrophy and was in a wheelchair. But, she said, doctors believe the fatal heart attack had nothing to do with his condition. Byrce had received a positive evaluation from a cardiologist the day before he died. 

 The idea to publish a book came to her just days after her son's passing. Two and half years later, the reality features a cover with a cartoon-version of Shae Ng, now 7, wearing a rainbow dress and holding a bucket. Around her are chickens and buzzing honeybees. 

 Shea loves rainbows and is always traipsing around the backyard with a bucket, noted Ng. The backyard of their Lakeville home features a chicken coop and several beehives. "I wanted the book to be representative of who we are," she said. 

The phone calls to heaven, which to this day are a regular occurrence in the Ng household, have also helped Ng and her family process the loss of other loved ones, including Crystal's father and her oldest daughter Siena's best friend Mary, who died in the second grade. 

Both are characters in the work. 

 One could say that, by publishing this piece, Ng is following in her late son's footsteps. Bryce authored his own book "Humphrey the Vegetarian Vampire," a story about accepting those who are different. (This book is also available on Amazon and elsewhere.)

He wrote the book to keep busy while receiving treatment for his condition at Tufts Floating Hospital. His mother says he saw the manuscript just days before he died.   

 Ask Crystal Ng how many children she has, and she will say five.

Four, plus Bryce, "who is forever 14."