A friend of mine passed away unexpectedly two weeks ago. Her name was Wendy. Her husband, Bob, reached out to let me know. Since then, we’ve been talking about what happened, how he and their son are coping, and what a remarkable woman Wendy was. I’ve been crying on and off since he told me. I don’t say that for sympathy. I say it because I want you to understand the impact Wendy had on our lives and how deeply someone can touch your heart simply by being part of your everyda

I live with grief every day. It's in my bones. Some moments, it feels like the thing that will suffocate me, but mostly it is the thing that has brought more compassion and sensitivity into my life. It doesn't define me, but it has shaped my life in more ways than I can count. Out of the six people in my nuclear family, I'm the only one left. It was my mother, father, sister's Linda and Lori, my brother Mark and me. Lori passed away from Leukemia just before her eighth birth