01/28/2025
Growing up, life was good. My parents worked hard to provide for my brother and I, creating a loving, supportive home where education and being children were most important.
My dad always emphasized the importance of education. Rather than doing hard manual labor (like himself); he wanted us to use our minds. Education was not an option.
I got married the year before finishing graduate school to a fella from my hometown. A traditional Catholic wedding, followed by moving into a house he had already built for us.
A few years later, we had our daughter, Kallie Lynn, born on Thursday, November 10, 2011. Not 11/11/11 as everyone had hoped and other parents had planned for. She had her very own special day. Everything was wonderful and seemed perfect…
until it wasn’t.
At 21 months old, Friday, August 16, 2013 Kallie was diagnosed with cancer - Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. All the hopes, dreams, plans, expectations, were shattered. Nothing went as we’d hoped or expected.
After a short life, and a brief battle, Kallie died on Wednesday, May 6, 2015. The grief, pain and heartbreak were too much for my marriage to survive. I couldn’t endure what I had with my daughter and stay in a marriage that couldn’t handle the burden of the sorrow. I made the decision to leave my husband.
For almost two years, I fought tirelessly to keep Kallie alive. Each day, I chose whether to wake up as a victim or a fighter. I chose joy over misery, reminding myself that life was short, and I had choices. But over time, I lost control. I began to focus on instant gratification and stopped planning for the future. The future felt empty without Kallie.
Then I discovered Life Coaching.
I guess that’s where the story stops, but also where it begins. I realized you can’t change the past, but you can choose your future.
