03/13/2026
Grief. It can be complex. One day you’re crying over what caused the grief, the next you can laugh at what they did or said, to only cry again.
6 years ago today at 1:58pm my Sara crossed the rainbow bridge. My chubby girl is the reason I got educated in grief and trauma, but her reason is the grief angle of my practice.
My story I have of my Sara is guilt. She witnessed my abuse the last 3 years of her life, and passed away 9 months after I left my abuser. I feel I robbed her last years on this earth due to me not believing I deserved better at that time.
I wasn’t ready to lose her quite yet, I knew her end was coming due to her crippling arthritis, but I just wasn’t ready.
She was my first pet grief and damn was that enormously tough. I laid her to rest in my mom’s home. People she loved and knew around her. I had her head in my arms and the weight of death in a head is something I cannot explain, but feel emotionally. She was my savior, my everything, my rock. Gone within seconds. I yelled a yell that came from my soul. It was a deep yell.
Sara touched lives that I never knew she did! I had people from California to England reaching out to me about how they loved her pictures and funny antics. PawPrints magazine here locally did a write up of my Sara because I had to pull her from a contest due to her death. The veterinarian at the time gave me a free appointment as a last checkup the day before her death. Sara was surrounded by so many who loved her.
So every year I just simply watch the clock for 1:58pm and I just say: “I love you Sara”.
Sara I think knew what was in store for me after her death and where I would go with my career and felt she was ready to leave me.
Sara is why your massage therapist goes above and beyond for trauma & grief. Why I fight for my clients healing, why I never will stop to make sure YOU are ok.
RIP Sara, May 7th 2008 - March 13th, 2020
——
Contact:
Oasis Massage Therapy, LLC
Courtney Fitzpatrick, NCLMBT #13724
📲 910-386-6229
📧 oasismassagelmbt@gmail.com
📍2709 Market Street
Suite 205D
Wilmington, NC 28403
📜 Certified in: Trauma/Grief, Manual Lymphatic Drainage, Oncology, & Prenatal/Postpartum Massage
——