10/10/2025                                                                            
                                    
                                                                            
                                            Becoming me again.
When my husband passed, a part of me went with him. The world didn't stop, the sun still rose, the bills still came, and the children still needed food on the table. Every morning I woke up to a reality I didn't bargain for, one where my strength wasn't a choice, but a necessity.
People often say " you're doing so well", when they see the smile on my face, but they didn't see the tears that stained my pillow at night, or the moments I whispered to myself, ' you've got this", even when I wasn't sure I did 
Resilience became my silent companion, not the loud kind that shouts victory , but the quiet one that simply refuses to give up.
My children became my heartbeat, my reason to rise again, I poured my energy into them, and sometimes forgetting myself in the process. Yet, deep within I know I had to choose myself too, for my sanity, my peace and my survival. 
Now, I'm learning and unlearning. Learning to love myself again. Unlearning the belief that strength means not feeling pain. I am becoming someone new, not who I was before the storm, but who I am after it.
A woman rebuilt from the ashes of grief.  Carrying both sorrow and hope in her smile.
I am not surviving, I am becoming.