Moving Forward
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Reflections– One Year of Widowhood
Next week, while the world celebrates Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, our family will feel the stark pain of one year without Matt. While we’ll do our best, as we always do, to create a sense of normalcy out of the abnormal, the hard truth is that Christmas Eve is now a very complicated holiday for us. And while I pray that memories of years past and merriment in the present bring us more laughter than tears, I can’t even begin to mask the void. Last year, I felt like a zombie just rolling through the motions of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the holidays that followed over the coming…
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I’m Moving: The New England Chapter
The secret has already been revealed, especially to all my friends and social media followers. I made the bittersweet decision to move back up to New England. This decision was far from easy and the single most challenging decision I’ve had to make since Matt’s death. I have a lot of thoughts around this choice. I know many of you had questions around it as well; so, I’m going to dig into the nitty gritty and explain the why and how I came about committing to this astronomical change. When I sold my house and decided to rent, I chose to do this because I needed time, less responsibility,…
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A Matter of Hope, Vacation, and Mini-Life Update
What happened to August? No idea. What happened in August? Everything. So much to talk about, I don’t even know where to begin. We’ll start with the obvious, my passion project, A Matter of Hope. Leading up to A Matter of Hope, I had this really calm assurance that everything would work out how it was supposed to. Trust me, after spending months pivoting, changing plans, and looking for ways to make this work, my random optimism was personally quite refreshing. I guess I felt like we did everything possible to make this successful, and at the end of the day, that’s all that mattered. It helped that we surpassed…
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Fear through the eyes of a young widow
Hello friends. Thank you all for the support of my “How to Help A Griever” blog post. It may have been somewhat controversial; that was not the intention. It was a glimpse into, or perhaps a reminder of, the support needed as a griever. I truly do appreciate all of the support I’ve received over the past eight months; I know I’m not the last person to grieve the traumatic loss, and I hope that my posts continue to help people on both sides of loss. On another note, I am really bad at keeping up with this blog, mainly because of the 40K other things that take precedence in…
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Advice for Friends and Family of Grievers
I reached out to my social media channels and asked fellow grievers for the advice they wish they could have given friends and family members prior to loss.I’ve crafted this post not to call people out, but to help people see things from the grievers point of view. It’s 100% not your fault that you don't know how to handle very delicate, highly volatile situations like grief. There is no textbook on the right thing to say or do.
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Our Cholangiocarcinoma Story: A Big WTF
On May 1, 2018, Matt and I found out we were pregnant with our first, and subsequently only, son, Bryson James (aptly named Pistachio at the time). In August of 2018, we moved from our beloved townhouse in Baltimore City to what was supposed to be our forever home “out in the country.” On January 14th, 2019, I gave birth to our son and we became parents. One week later, at the age of 34, my husband Matt was diagnosed with Stage IV Cholangiocarcinoma
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Navigating through the pandemic, widow life, and other questions.
Considering the fact that over the past 4 months, I lost my best friend and gained the terrible title of widow at the age of 33 (almost 34), got quarantined in my new apartment because of a worldwide pandemic, and share a bed with a one-year old, crib-hating ninja warrior (who I love, dearly), I’d say I’m doing alright; I’m still kicking over here.
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MY RESPONSE TO COVID-19
When you’re in the trenches and forced into an alternate reality, it gives you little time to complain or lament; in effect, you’re just trying to figure out how to adjust and survive.
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Grief Myth Busters According to Xtina
Grief is a person experience, unique to the individual and situation. These are the myths I've busted about grief.
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A Tribute to My Husband, Matt
This is a tribute to my soul mate, my husband Matt who was taken away far too soon from all who loved him.
