Love You Like a Bus: Letters to Will
Finding Joy and Purpose in Life After Child Loss
by Joni Bouchard

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Love You Like a Bus: Letters to Will is a mother’s raw, tender, and ultimately life-affirming memoir of love after loss. When Joni Bouchard’s twelve-year-old son, Will, dies suddenly and tragically, her world fractures. She continues their daily conversations the only way she knows how: by writing him letters. What begins as a private act of survival becomes a profound record of grief experienced in real time, capturing the shock, physical pain, longing, and unbearable quiet that follow the loss of a child. Written not in hindsight but as the days, months, and years unfold, these letters trace Joni’s journey through the darkest moments of bereavement toward an unexpected rediscovery of light. Her perspective slowly shifts over time, and she learns that surviving doesn’t mean leaving Will behind; it means living for him. Along the way, she uncovers hard-earned truths about love, resilience, faith, and the quiet beauty found in life’s smallest moments. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, Love You Like a Bus is a companion for parents navigating the unimaginable, a window for those supporting someone through child loss, and a poignant reminder that deep grief is the mirror of deep love—and that perhaps those we love and lose are never truly gone.

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Joni Bouchard is a mother, writer, and grief companion who lives with her husband in the foothills west of Calgary, Alberta. She is the proud mom of three sons: two who run and one who soars. A lifelong letter writer and journal keeper, Joni credits her grandfather with inspiring her love of storytelling through correspondence. She holds a diploma in Writing for Children & Teens from the Institute of Children’s Literature and has extensive experience working with children as a Learning Resource Assistant in school settings from kindergarten to Grade 8. She has also volunteered as a parent co-facilitator at the AHS Bob Glasgow Grief Support Centre in Calgary. Through her writing and her website, loveletterstowill.com, Joni connects with readers around the world, offering compassion, honesty, and the reassurance that no one walks the long road of grief alone.

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Joni Bouchard