Messy, Real and 100% Us.

By Donna Simard Christina watched snowflakes drift softly from the sky, turning the world outside the hospital window into a quiet winter postcard. Normally, snowfall during the Christmas season filled her with joy, but this year, joy felt far away. Instead, she felt fear, uncertainty, and the hollow ache of not knowing what came next. She turned toward her eight-year-old daughter, Bella, lying in the hospital bed with IV lines and monitors gently beeping beside her. Bella wa

Some mornings catch you off guard in the best way. Today was one of those mornings. I walked into the living room, coffee in hand, and the glow of the Christmas tree hit me in that nostalgic way. The house was quiet, the kind of quiet I never appreciated when the kids were little because it barely existed back then. Now it shows up more often, and I find myself soaking it in a little longer. The tree looked beautiful, a mix of ornaments that had survived years of shifting han

We went to a funeral recently. You know the kind where you walk through the church doors and see faces you haven’t seen in years. Family members you only get to hug when someone dies. The ones you grew up with but now only meet again in moments of loss. There’s something strange and sacred about that. About standing shoulder to shoulder with people who once filled your childhood, brought together again by grief. We grew up where funerals were a familiar part of life. From as