The work of cleaning and clearing an apartment full of my mom’s lifelong treasures was done in a matter of days. I paused when I needed to and allow grief to do its thing every time I encountered it. I had a lot of heavy emotions but I had peace. When I climbed in to […]
Good-bye mail box. Good-bye loft. Good-bye island. Good-bye Timpson. Good-bye home. Good-bye memories, everywhere. I had sat many evenings around the island to my left. Sometimes with friends into the wee hours of the night, other times with my mom and dad. Behind me was where we took our last family photo we took in […]
When someone dies unexpectedly, you become ridiculously aware that at the end of your life… all we are is a collection of things, memories… and if we’re lucky… we are a legacy worth remembering. Mom was all of these, but most of all… she left behind ALOT of things. There is real grief to be […]
The night of October 10th, I had a group of friends that had cleaned mom’s apartment all day. They had gone through each piece of mail with care, packed tons of photographic proof of our amazing adolescence in boxes, and stopped to let me smoke a cigarette… which I totally forgot how to do. I […]
The wait was over, the work in front of us. After the great day with Kayce, I was driving in my mom’s car to where she worked. I loved being with dear friends. I also loved being alone. My mom bought ‘Red Gypsy’ within the year. She loved this car. As I climbed into it… […]
There are amazing women in the world. Women who are hyper-driven, and strong as hell. Women like Elisabeth Marlow. Here is a portion of her story about perseverance and perspective. Becoming a mom was always highest on my list of aspirations for my life. I was amazingly surprised to find I was pregnant at 21. […]
Adventures of Kayce & Chey When the Fam and I arrived back in Texas from New York & New Jersey, I would be on a plane within 24 hours to Shreveport where my closest friend (Seester), would pick me up. She said that was the best use of her frequent flyer miles ever. Here is […]
As I waited for Matt to get back with the kids. I was very thankful for the wise counsel that we had accumulated over the last month. Everyone processes grief differently. They also introduce grief to children differently too. We were not asking questions to imitate the responses… We were gathering stories and from them, […]
Time of Death: October 4, 2018. 12:59P The world is usually a loud and interfering opponent. On October 4, 2018, I awoke to a world filled with deafening silence. I had stayed the night with my mom, and as my eyes opened when my alarm went off, her breathing had not changed. It was not […]
October 2, 2018 was the hardest day of our journey. October 3, 2018 was the most humbling. When my mom was transported from East Texas to my home in North Texas, I was functioning at a pretty high level. When she was at the nursing and rehab center, I realized that it was fall. My […]
It All Counts 