Rickson Gracie recently shared the heartbreaking story of how it felt losing his 18-year-old son, Rockson, and the intense emotional journey that followed.

Rockson tragically passed away from an overdose during a trip to New York, where he was visiting his girlfriend and exploring modeling opportunities. After weeks of silence, Gracie sought help from his contacts in the New York police, who eventually located Rockson’s body.

Rickson shared how that felt:

I lost my ground when my son departed from this Earth.
He was 18 years old, full of life, energetic, tough kid.

We had a very great relationship – father and son friendship.

The loss left Rickson in an emotional void:

For a while, I was completely lost. I really wanted to drop into a hole.

I allowed myself to cry, allowed myself not to want to work, not to want to surf, not to join my friends.

In his search for solace, Gracie found himself drawn to the trees on his hillside property.
He began constructing a treehouse platform as a way to create a sacred space to honor Rockson’s memory.

I was investing my time on building this platform, buying the wood, buying the harness to stay upside down, making holes on the tree.

I polished the wood floor and that’s a beautiful thing, put his picture there.

With time, the wound somewhat healed.
And Rickson was able to draw lessons from it:

I learned that tomorrow may never happen, and you should be more sharp the way you use your day.

After that understanding, I was thankful for my son’s departure because he taught me how to be sharp on my use of time.
I become much more respectful.

Finally, he shared some great advice for men worldwide, when it comes to dealing with emotional challenges:

You cannot just play a role of tough guy and [put on] this armor of toughness.
From inside, you [would be] destroyed and eaten.