Living in Los Angeles for her television work, Smith met and married Reid Nathan. Their son, Justin, was born in October 1989 and died of a rare genetic condition after three days. "It's a cliche to say that that changed my life, but it did," she said. "After he died, I felt like I was walking around under water. It was horribly traumatic, and I was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "After a while I realized that the only way I was going to be able to heal myself was to help other people who had experienced a similar loss. The impetus was not entirely altruistic; I wanted to help myself as much as I wanted to help other people."