04/22/2026
Last year I was 3 days into our 3 week vacation in Hawaii when I hopped on a red eye to Michigan to help with my sister. Unexpectedly, one week later I was holding my mom’s hand as she took her last breath. April 22nd changed me in ways I can’t explain. A heaviness walks hand in hand with this grief. To lose your person puts the entire world in perspective. Relationships, goals, life…all just don’t quite feel the same. Though this heaviness is constantly breaking me open there’s also a sort of lightness in it. This shift has forced me to see everything with new eyes. To move towards what sets my soul on fire. To live in a way that would make her proud because I’m lucky enough to carry her love forward.
In a years time I’ve had to write two obituaries, two eulogies, and plan two funerals. I feel like I’m just now able to start the grieving process. A process you never really get “through” but now I at least can be with my own breath. My mom was an incredible human. Someone who could light up a room and make you feel like the most important person in it. She was a force to be reckoned with and though I’m not able to hear her voice everyday, I still feel her presence. Holding me and my family with a love that can never die. Today I will spend it in a way that feels right. Horses and mountains speak to my soul and remind me of all the beauty in this world. Something she was, beautiful inside and out.
