Heavy Hearts & Hometown Heartache.
🥺🖤,
All day I felt like someone picked a scab that was covering a gushing wound. I called my husband and we cried together never ever want to hear the news that someone suffered the pain of losing a child… because we know all too well it’s a lifetime of unfathomable pain.
I struggled to say anything for fear you would think or say I’m making it about me because that is not the case at all. I’m just doing as another grieving mother has done for me.
I’m letting you know as much as this sucks… you are not alone and you do not have to face this alone. From one grieving mother’s heart to another, I’m sending you love and so much strength… There are no rules for grieving and time becomes insignificant in so many ways now.
I’m not going to lie to you.
It will NEVER be okay.
It will NEVER become easy.
And the sorrow of losing your son or daughter will NEVER lessen.
AND NO ONE will understand your pain unless they too have endured this life.
What I can tell you is that it will change.
You will learn to survive and live around the pain and emptiness.
It will not always be as suffocating and debilitating as it is right now.
If you refuse to give up, you will find life again, in your own time.
The colors will never be as vivid as they once were; however, they will return to your world one day… Time will never be your friend but rather your teacher.
Follow your heart.
No one else knows what you need. It is so raw right now so simply breathe and do whatever it is that will get you to the next moment.
Nothing more.
It is breath by breath and moment by moment right now and for some time to come.
There is no time limit, no right or wrong and no matter what you may think sometimes, you are NOT crazy or going insane.
It is simply your new normal.
You also are NOT alone.
There is an entire community rallying around you and if that isn’t enough the surrounding areas are stepping up too. There are many of us traveling this road ahead of you and many more will arrive to follow behind you. When you are ready, reach out to the hands that journey ahead of you and allow them to pull you up and forward when you fall.
They are waiting, and they are infused with the strength of a million broken hearts connected throughout time and space by a pain and sorrow that is sealed off from the rest of the world and all other experiences.
And if you refuse to give up, if you remember that you alone are the keeper of your son’s or daughter’s memory, you will one day find yourself taking hold of a desperate hand reaching out for help from behind you and you will realize that you too have been infused with the strength needed to pull another mother or father up and forward.
But for today and for as many tomorrows as your heart says is needed, simply breathe and grieve my sister…
Breathe and grieve for your child.
And do it in absolutely any way that feels right to you.
Simply breathe and grieve because for as long as you breathe, your son or daughter will live on in you.
Share their stories and keep their memory alive.
Our family is continuing to pray for the families of today’s tragedy in our small town.
To the husbands and wives hugging teachers, principals, administrators, aides, bus drivers, and all other school staff… my prayers are with you!
To our first responders, I have no words but I’m forever grateful for each and every one of you!!
It’s true that we will always remember where we were on 9/11 but Rushville will always remember 3/11 now too because that’s a day our community froze in fear.
Catastrophic loss, no matter what names were released.. the loss was still going to devastate our entire community.
#prayforrushville
Remember, breathe & grieve.
