08/17/2026
It's been 11 years today since my husband, Manny, crossed over to the other side.
I think about how much I have grown and changed in that time. How much I have had to grieve, navigate, rebuild, and figure out along the way. The road has been incredibly bumpy at times. There have been days when I didn't know what to do, where to turn, or how I was going to keep moving forward.
But somehow, I did.
And through it all, I have continued to feel that Manny is still with me in spirit—watching over us, guiding us, and reminding me that love doesn't simply disappear when someone dies. Just yesterday, I saw so many cardinals, and those little moments still make me smile and feel connected to him.
Grief has taught me so much.
It has taught me resilience. It has taught me how to adapt to a life I never asked for and how to slowly accept things I desperately wished I could change. It has taught me how to feel deeply rather than run from what hurts.
And perhaps one of its greatest gifts has been teaching me how to sit beside someone else in their pain.
My journey through losing my husband has not been an easy one, but the growth that has come from it has been exponential. My capacity to understand another person's grief—to sit with them in the muck, without trying to fix it or rush them through it—is one of the ways I have been able to make meaning from something that changed my life so profoundly.
Every time I can understand someone else's grief a little more deeply, every time I can help someone feel less alone in theirs, a little more meaning is created from my own.
I would never have chosen this road.
But I can honor what it has taught me and what I have chosen to do with everything I have lived through.
11 years. ❤️
Manny, you are still a part of my story. And in so many ways, you are still a part of the work I do in this world.
