“Through the Dark, We Rise”

This year, I watched a few of my best friends lose their parents. It didn’t matter the circumstance or age; it’s a hole that runs deep.

There’s something about losing a parent that rearranges the ground beneath your feet. Even when you know it’s coming. Even when you’re “ready.” It doesn’t feel fair or neat. It just… hurts and it hurts every day.

Grief has a way of showing up without asking permission. It doesn’t care about the details, the why or when. Loss is loss. It can hollow you out or flood everything at once. Some days it’s sharp, other days it’s a quiet ache that sits beside you.

What it changes most isn’t the moment itself, but the way the world shifts after. Ordinary things start to carry weight. Small memories become the very thing you hold on to.

There’s no right way to handle it. Just the quiet courage to keep breathing every day.

I lost my dad four years ago, less than a month after my first grandson was born. I’ll never forget my sister saying, “I feel so bad for you… this is the best & worst time of your life.” She also told me how amazed she was by the strength I carried through it all.

The truth is, we find strength when we least expect it. It rises quietly, it controls us, and somehow… it leads us through.

I pray my friends find comfort in the love that remains, steady and true.

Losing a loved one is inevitable.

We dread it.

We face it.

And somehow, we keep going.

Because love doesn’t end when a life does.

It shifts us and then It settles.

It keeps us moving forward.

Cheers to staying Happy, Healthy & Fit,

even through the darkest parts of it all.

Especially then. xo, M