ABOUT ME
Hi, I’m Heather!
I am so glad to meet you here.
I am a word weaver, and a truth, beauty and good seeker. I enjoy writing about deep faith, the gift of raising a family, the vocation of marriage and taking long walks while listening for the voice of God. I am a mother, a widow, a daughter, a friend, a shopkeeper, a speaker, and a podcaster.
I am hopelessly in love with connecting with people and desire to help others find the best version of themselves with a bit of irreverent fun all for the Glory of God. I love to ask questions to get to the heart of things, and am comfortable sharing the uncomfortable, vulnerable truth of my journey in life to help others know they are not alone in theirs. I am a devoted daughter of a GOoD and Faithful Father and believe the best way to live this life is to do my best to see God in the face of others. My faith has been the peace that I have needed to keep me centered in a sometimes difficult journey called life.
In July 2020 I have had to shift my focus to caring for my husband of 25 years and best friend of 33 years as he battled terminal brain cancer and fought to regain function and strength from a stroke for 33 months (all these numbers feel so biblical to me). He lived well with eyes fixed on God and joy in his heart, loving and laughing knowing this would be his journey toward eternal life. Verso l’alto
What a privilege it was to walk alongside Jon on this journey. Some of the most vulnerable words were born of the most painful moments as we prepared for the uncertainty of his finite time. With our kids and I by his side, he breathed his last breath in what some would call a very holy death, thank you St. Joseph for being my ever-present patron Saint, since my birth. Thank you St. Gianna and Pietro Molla for being a holy witness to the sacrificial love of marriage.
The vows we took have been strengthened as we have lived out our Sacrament of Marriage during this suffering we endured. In sickness and in health was our liturgy.
The more we lean into our faith and surrender to God’s plan and will the more peace, grace, mercy courage and strength we feel in our suffering. It is here as we walk in learning to pick up the pieces of our lives without the leader of our family at the helm this side of the heaven.
Together we raised a family of 4 children with faith at the center of everything. With this faith and unconditional love, we have guided and encouraged our uniquely individual children to discover who God is calling them to be and we have chosen to allow God to heal a lifetime of wounds along the way.
Life is hard, and we have had to walk alongside our children while overcoming obstacles of life, such as living with hearing loss, grief, and anxiety, loss of loved ones and an extremely difficult and traumatic cancer journey for their dad.
It has not been an easy road, but we have found hope, gifts and miracles in the suffering along the way. As we fix our eyes on heaven and journey through this beautiful life to our sanctification we learn to share this space called home—our soft place to land—with abundant forgiveness, endless laughter, unconditional love and our new long walk with grief. We will navigate, heal and rebuild our life after this tremendous loss while resting in God’s mercy and grace, and surrendering and trusting His will for our lives.
I am grateful you are here where words are a matter of the heart.
May we find love and laughter here,
Heather
Recent Posts:
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Family | Life | Motherhood
Summer Endings, More Sundays and a Sweet Cake
Our family life has always been marked by the beginning and end of the school year and by summers. Oh, didn’t we wish our summers would last forever. Jon and I were perpetual students for nearly the first decade of our life together, and then, as a teacher and eventually parents, the academic calendar continued…
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I Wanted to Remember Us—What I Would Tell Her
I remember the day like it was yesterday. The photograph was taken on this early August day in 2020, just a day after Jon and I returned home from a follow-up MRI and our first appointment with his oncologist after his brain tumor had been removed. We met the doctor, now had a treatment plan…
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There’s Your New Path, Mom
“There’s your new path, Mom.” My son said it so casually, so exhaustedly after weeks of us working outside in the summer sun and heat and laying those very last stones. I chuckled to myself. A New Path. Then I repeated, “Ha. A new path. I am sure there is a metaphor in that, Ian.”…
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Family | Home | Homeschool | Life | Motherhood
Closing a Chapter Without Pomp and Circumstance
Yesterday, my youngest little lady graduated from high school. Alongside the graduation photos taken by her sister, she shared a few simple words about her school and homeschooling journey (5th-12th grade) that brought me to tears and inspired this reflection as a big chapter in my motherhood journey comes to a close. She wrote: “Graduated…
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Memorial Day Memory—Remember Me and the Tarnished Silver Box
Today I set out two treasured photographs for Memorial Day, a silver box given to me by my dad, and a combat rosary given to Jon during his battle with brain cancer. One photograph is of my dad in his Marine uniform. Another is of my beloved Uncle Charlie standing behind my dad when he…
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Garden | Grief and Loss | Healing | Widowhood
Fresh Blooms, Fragile Roots, the Landscape of Loss, and New Life
I found a photo from six years ago. Read on and you will find it. I noticed how the landscape has changed dramatically. Of my yard, home, heart. I remember that season, when I took the picture, though now it feels like a lifetime ago. Maybe even another life altogether. Maybe someone else’s life. It…
