“I needed someone to tell in case I went ‘missing.’ Our house was in the middle of a hill, covered by woods. ‘Mom, please come.’ With the highest anxiey I’d ever felt in my life, I slowly closed the door. This was it. My goodbye after 13 years. My kids smiled in the backseat, oblivious. ‘Go!’ I turned off my location and watched in the mirror as we drove away.”

‘FREEZE. DON’T MOVE,’ I whispered. This was it. He knew I was escaping. The music stopped. ‘Run, run now!’: Woman escapes abusive relationship, re-marries, ‘I am now loving every waking moment on earth’

‘Your dad is going to die. This is a gut-wrencher. You will adopt a child. He will be your brother – the 4th child your dad has with his new wife.’
“Your dad’s wife will die unexpectedly of a drug overdose, followed by your dad to cancer just days later. Before your dad dies, he will sign over custody to you. You will fight tooth and nail through the courts for this child. This is your rock bottom.”

‘I play out the details of that final weekend in my head. Struck by how quickly it was all over. Just like that, she was gone. Gone forever.’
“It intensifies on November 8th. That is the day my soulmate came home for Veterans Day weekend. It was a Thursday evening, as it is this year. She kissed me goodbye, then my life was turned upside down.”

‘You need to go. Be out in nature.’ She took her last breath and vanished into the air. I’ll never forget those words.’: Man’s soulmate dies of cancer, travels the country with her ashes
“My wife knew being out in nature, amongst the wind and the rock, would be my medicine for grief. Two months after she passed, with a map and her ashes, I set off on a journey that would take me 12 weeks, 19,000 miles. I was on my own, but I wasn’t alone. Her urn sat in the passenger seat as she always did. Her spirit was there, guiding and comforting me.”

‘On the day of their anniversary, he left a note saying ‘Sorry I wasn’t good enough, sorry I was an a**hole. Sorry…’’
“As we got deeper, Lee told me her struggles in life, living where she lives and that her husband committed suicide about 20 years ago.”