“When we lowered his casket into the ground, a butterfly followed it in, and flew out as soon as the casket was laid down. It was evident to everyone who witnessed it; he lived life so big, and he would live as big on the other side. And so began his larger-than-life journey.”
The Murrays welcomed six daughters over the last decade. But the couple received a big surprise earlier this month when, after the birth of their seventh child, they realized the baby was a boy.
“I woke up and cried for my mom. Here I was, a grown adult, and all I wanted was to see her. The nurses wouldn’t let me. I was in too much pain and they feared how my mom would react.”
“I put on a show for the sake of others, all the while denying myself the opportunity to live authentically.”
“Was I a widow? Or was I just the ex-wife? I was still the mother of his child, but we weren’t in an active relationship at this time of his death. What and who did this make me? I’d lost the man I loved, but I wasn’t granted extended bereavement time off work. There was no GoFundMe pages created to help with the unexpected funeral costs. His sudden death had me questioning everything, including my identity.”
“There was no intervention. No one said ‘We think you have a problem.’ There was no rock bottom. It was waking up one morning with my daughter asleep in my arms next to me and worrying about her future.”
“It makes me sad to know he couldn’t see me on our wedding day, or when we were engaged, or when I told him I loved him for the first time. But love has overcome all of these sad truths.”
“We were having a 4th baby in less than 5 years.”
“We heard, ‘Starting your own business is a big risk.’ ‘You could lose all your money.’ ‘It won’t work out. That’s a huge risk with kids to feed.’ See that building behind us? This is our ‘we made it’ picture.”
“Someone told me I’d grieve FOREVER, so that’s what I believed.”
