Category: Parenting through Grief, Trauma, and Loss
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~Life is Not a Fairytale
Dear Lacey, Between your busy social calendar, rigorous gymnastics training schedule, drill team practices, and keeping up in school, it’s common for you to be very hungry and very tired by the end of every day. After Thursday practice you mysteriously turned down Cane’s Chicken Fingers, insistent you needed to get home and finish schoolwork.…
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Mothers and Daughters
Dear Kori Jane, Being the mother of a published author fills me with immense pride and maybe just a tiny bit of fear of the stories you’ll tell about our crazy family! A few weeks ago, your little sister came home concerned about my reputation after being asked by a friend if your poems were…
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Four Years Later
Dear Kori Jane, Exactly four years ago this week, Leap Day 2020, in King County Washington, the first US death from Covid-19 was reported. The reality of what was unfolding in Seattle had not yet hit us down here in Houston. Hundreds of thousands of Houstonians were still gathering daily for the annual Houston Livestock…
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Never Alone
Dear Kori Jane, Last year, this mother of yours reluctantly agreed to an all-day bike ride through the mountains of Montana. As you are aware, I’m not exactly fit and I have no cycling experience. Our dear friend Devon, having traveled this road before, assured me the trail was mostly downhill, and the views would…
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Seasons Always Change
Dear Lacey, After entertaining the idea of moving last year, Dad and I decided to settle in and get you and your sister graduated before leaving our beloved home of 15 years. Then the first week of March, just after my sycamore tree finally sprang back to life, a house came on the market tempting…
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A Weary World Rejoices
Dear Cade, Nothing about December 2022 has felt Christmassy. Maybe it was starting the month missing you and your sister as you finished your first semesters of college. Or maybe it’s Dad’s job demanding more of him than any of us like to spare. And then there was my bright idea to trade in rogue…
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It’s Not That Deep
Dear Hallie, Today is Mother’s Day and just like every other second Sunday in May for the last ten years, I find myself experiencing a tidal wave of grief mingled gladness. It’s difficult to believe I’ve survived ten Mother’s Days without my mom around to share in the joys and burdens of my own motherhood…
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The Things that Matter Most
Dear Cade, You challenge me! You challenge me in ways all 16-year-olds challenge their mothers, but it’s so much more than that! You also challenge me in ways only an absent-minded professor challenges and confounds everyone they meet. While you miss obvious and practical realities staring you in the face, you’re more awake to the…
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Grocery Stores and Dirty Floors
Dear Kori Jane, In the two years between Daddy and I’s wedding day and you crashing our party, I used to love going to the grocery store. Perhaps because I’d lived with my own mom right up until that very moment, so the thrill of being in charge of filling a refrigerator and pantry with…
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Sycamore Trees
Dear Hallie, I feel sorry for everyone who has never discovered the intense magic and utter delight of a soak in a hot bath. There is nothing for me this side of heaven that quite compares to the sensation that spreads as I sink down and let the water engulf me. And then even after…