LOWER SALFORD — Now what?

That’s the question after you get through the initial days of shock from a child’s death and the funeral, Marcy Stone said.

For Stone, it happened when her 21-year-old daughter, Sydney, was killed in a vehicle accident on Christmas Eve 2016.

Now what?

“When I went looking for resources, everything was incredibly negative and depressing,” Stone, a Harleysville resident, said.

The advice she found didn’t offer much of a future, she said.

“It was almost like, ‘Alright, well, that’s it, you’re done. Your child is dead, so now you are going to live in this place for the rest of your life,'” she said, “and that wasn’t acceptable to me.”

With her newly published book, “The Voice of an Angel,” Stone, an intuitive life guide at Shanteel Yoga Sanctuary in Sellersville, Reiki master, Certified International Yoga Instructor and ordained minister, said she hopes to help other parents responding to the death of a child find a way through the grieving to embrace their new reality.

There are good organizations that offer support, but it takes more for the grieving parents to begin moving forward, Ken Bell, Marcy Stone’s husband, said.

“Many of them are unfortunately stuck,” he said. “Sometimes they’re just stuck in angry. Sometimes they’re stuck in not knowing what to do.”

Stone’s background in life coaching helps her guide people away from being stuck, he said.

“This book was a natural outcropping in terms of here’s a way of not only just surviving and wallowing, but moving forward, stepping one step at a time, one breath at a time, and allowing yourself to grieve appropriately, whatever that is for you,” Bell said.

The name of the book comes from her continued contact with Sydney, Stone said.

“I don’t know where you stand on angels and all that, but she talked and does talk to me — through signs, messages, dreams,” Stone said.

Author information in the book cites Stone as having “two beautiful daughters, one that walks with her and one that watches over her,” referring to daughters Aubrey and Sydney.

Following introductory chapters, the book includes ones on topics such as the grieving process, basic fundamentals, core values and guiding principles.

The steps in the book are designed to lead readers to their personal peace at their own pace, Bell said.

“I’m giving people the permission to do whatever they need whenever they need through the course of this horrific journey,” Stone said. “I mean, there’s days still that I take two steps forward and one step back and I have to be OK with that.”

The self-published book is available on Amazon as a Kindle or paperback and will be in some local shops and pharmacies, she said. Stone said she has also been in contact with victim assistance groups about doing a pamphlet that could be distributed by the organizations.

The basic fundamentals section of the book helps people know where to start, Stone said.

“You have to really establish what is key and paramount to survival because you have to survive in the beginning,” she said.

People are afraid to talk about death, she said.

“I mean, people are terrified of it,” Stone said. “I’m not overly excited about it, but it’s what the cards were dealt.”

You have to make lemonade out of lemons, she said.

“Honestly, Sydney wouldn’t have it any other way. She would not be pleased with me if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing,” Stone said. “I just want to help people.”

One of the messages she received from Sydney was to continue keeping a journal, Stone said.

“Through the journaling, when I would go back and read it, things would jump out at me,” Stone said.

“When I started to really focus on the book, it took about nine weeks,” she said. “I couldn’t get it out quick enough and it just started to fall in place, and I’m convinced it’s because she was helping me.”

The plan was to have the book published on Sept. 7, 2018, for Sydney Stone’s 22nd birthday.

“It actually happened two or three days early thanks to Amazon, but as far as we’re concerned, we’re going with the seventh,” Marcy Stone said. “It gave me time to have some printed to actually have for her birthday, which was really wonderful.”

One of the things Sydney told her in her dreams was to “Lean into the love” to help heal, Stone said.

“The love that we had while she was here with me is getting me through all of this,” she said.

“You have this gaping hole, and you understand over time that there’s just nothing ever going to be filling that,” Stone said

“The grief just makes you realize how much love you have and leaning into that and using that love to help you not hate, not feel bitter, not be angry — granted, you’re going to feel that way, I don’t mean not ever, but not forever,” she said, “and that’s a huge difference.”

The choices are life versus lifelessness, she said.

“I want anybody that’s lost someone to understand that there is life, light and love at the end of the dark tunnel,” Stone said.

“That’s the thriving piece. It doesn’t have to stay this way, and the book is to help them when they’re ready to not be that way, to work through it step by step in their time and their process,” Stone said, “so that they can find love again, they can find life again.”