“I found myself at 21, fatherless and lost. Just as I was beginning to grapple with my grief, I received a call that my mother was found dead. I’m the girl who carries her parents in all she does. I continue to be their legacy.”
‘It was a dream of mine to walk across the stage and see my dad smiling from one big goofy ear to another.’: After losing both parents, young woman urges ‘show up’ for those grieving
‘You need to get away. You need a BREAK.’ So what did I do? YUP, I called my sister. Who else would do this for me?’: Woman writes story praising ‘superstar’ late sister, ‘She was my rock’
“She called from the hospital to let me know she would try to be well enough to make that trip down here. She had COVID. She helped in every way possible for me to navigate widowhood. She was on the ventilator eight days. The one I leaned on my whole life.”
‘Why are you involved? Isn’t it depressing?’ I was dying and it wasn’t the cancer. It was the state of my life.’: Woman survives esophageal cancer, jumpstarts organization to help others
“I was separating from my husband, all the while wondering whether I was going to live or die. I was sharing a room with a woman who’d been told, ‘You have an incurable blood disease. Death is certain.’ I recall shrinking beneath my blankets, not wanting to bring attention to myself on the other side of the thin layer of privacy hanging between us. She told them ‘I have no family to call,’ and when the doctors left, we sat there in silence. I knew I was destined to do more.”
‘9 years ago, my dad caught a cold virus. 3 years later, my mom was diagnosed with aggressive nasal cancer. Her stomach bloated like she was 7 months pregnant. Was this really happening again?’
“Things were looking up, so we thought.”
