Nearly Four Months Later, Kimberly Van Der Beek Still Feels James's Presence

Grief doesn’t follow a script, and neither does Kimberly Van Der Beek’s journey through loss. Nearly four months after the death of her husband, actor James Van Der Beek, the 44-year-old is navigating a landscape that most of us can only imagine—raising six children alone while processing the absence of a partner who shaped her entire adult life.

The Dawson’s Creek star passed away in February after battling stage III colorectal cancer. He was 48. In the months since, Kimberly has been remarkably open about what grief actually feels like, and her vulnerability has become its own kind of anchor for her family and for those watching from afar.

What strikes most about Kimberly’s approach is her refusal to treat grief as something to“get over.”On Saturday, June 28, she posted on Instagram:“Baby, love does not die. Death does not part.”That’s not denial—it’s a different kind of presence. Three months after his death, she wrote about the“comforts of shock”wearing off and the reality settling in. She described feeling him more deeply, knowing him differently now. She also mentioned something many people don’t expect from grief:“There is a different kind of magic in the air.”

James’s impact as a father continues even in his absence. Kimberly shared that“from the other side”he continues to parent—a poetic way of acknowledging how his legacy shapes the kids’choices and values. Friends including actress Nikki Reed and actor Dave Annable rallied around the family on Father’s Day, honoring the mark James left as a dad who was“always building something with a child in tow.”

What Kimberly’s posts reveal, week by week and month by month, is something important: grief and love aren’t opposites. They’re two sides of the same coin. The pain is real. The missing him is visceral. But so is the deepening connection, the spiritual shift, the way a family becomes stronger precisely because they’re learning to hold space for both the loss and the ongoing bond. That’s not healing in the traditional sense. That’s something messier and more honest—and perhaps more real.