Influencer Melissa Mae Carlton Provides Grief Update Ahead of Molly’s Passing
Influencer Melissa Mae Carlton spoke candidly about her grief following the loss of her daughter Abigail, just weeks prior to the passing of her younger daughter Molly on Christmas morning.
“I find myself in [a] difficult and confusing space regarding my grief. I feel happiness but also profound sadness,” Carlton shared via Instagram on December 2, reflecting on the family’s challenging November. “I once heard someone say that for those who grieve, we don’t receive much. We get a funeral … and then life resumes as if nothing has happened.”
She mentioned, “However, when we lose someone, we experience the loss repeatedly in various ways, and we ‘bury’ them time and again. Some days, I long to escape this body and the pain I feel.”
Melissa and her husband, Tom Carlton, announced in April 2024 that Abigail passed away at the age of 9.
“I am incredibly grateful for the blessings in my life,” Melissa reflected in a post shared earlier this month. “I believe we genuinely experience a piece of Heaven on earth through our friends and family. Yet, it feels incomplete without all of them 💔.”
She later expressed her reluctance to celebrate an “aesthetic Christmas” in the absence of Abi.
“One lesson from losing a child is that I no longer desire my home to feel like a showpiece,” she indicated in a now-deleted Instagram post on December 11. “I want it to feel cozy and lived in, with clear signs that children inhabit it. I regret ever setting up two Christmas trees—one for us and one for the kids. From now on, the tree will be for the kids alone, adorned with their decorations and everything they’ve created for it.”
To honor Abigail, Melissa and Tom encouraged their other children to craft “Abi angels” for the Christmas tree and even framed their late daughter’s holiday pajamas to display on the wall.
On Christmas morning 2025, their youngest daughter, Molly, passed away following a medical complication and a short hospitalization. (Melissa and Tom also have children Lily and Harry.)
“I am cautious about sharing a medical update too soon because we still lack an official diagnosis; however, I feel it’s essential to inform everyone that we have some insights this time,” Melissa wrote on Saturday, December 27. “The doctors suspect that Molly may have had a genetic heart condition, which they believe could also explain Abi’s situation.”
She continued, “These answers emerged because Molly was monitored in the hospital, a luxury we didn’t have with Abi. I’ve always felt unsatisfied with the explanations we received about her. In cases like this, we’ve been made aware that even a minor illness could trigger a sudden cardiac event.”
According to Melissa, Molly’s “little body fought fiercely” against the currently unknown illness.
“Medical professionals have indicated that this type of cardiac event is generally not survivable in most cases,” she added. “I sincerely hope we will discover more answers soon and will be pursuing further genetic investigation for our family now that we potentially have a clearer path to follow.”
As she spoke about Molly’s passing, Melissa acknowledged that she was still processing her grief over Abigail.
“I’ve been less active online lately because, honestly, I’ve been grappling with deep grief and feeling uninspired,” she noted on Saturday. “The reason I shared our experience with Molly is that I believe in the power of prayer. We were en route to the hospital, fearing that she was already gone. Still, I believed in God’s ability to grant a miracle if it were His will. I held onto that faith until the very end.”
