Listen Yall: 2020 Sucked.

Let’s start at the beginning. We had a Roaring 20’s New Years party which also celebrated my 25th birthday. Woohoo! Best night ever!

(Little did we all know..ugh.)

Fast forward a month. My husband, Trevor, and I went to the Texas Hill Country for a weekend getaway. We stayed at the cutest little “glamping” place, Collective Hill Retreats. They had horseback riding but it wasn’t on a boring, monotonous trail. It was pretty much open range which made the experience the best I’ve ever had. On another day, we went day drinking and llama petting at The Shady Llama. They were so cute! Plus the mimosas and hammocks were super fun. The greatest adventure we went on was the ziplining between big Texas hills (we like to call those Texas Mountains) and over the valleys. Trevor, who was my boyfriend at the time, was so nervous about it! I’m the adrenaline junkie and he is the more grounded one of the two of us, so we balance each other out well.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, we got engaged on this trip!! Best trip EVER! We took the rest of the long weekend to bask in the newly engaged glow but as soon as we got on the road home, my mind was racing from one wedding detail to the next. I couldn’t help it!

We originally set the date for September 13th only things didn’t go as planned, and thank God they didn’t. Trevor and I are very strong in our Christian faith. He has this unique spiritual gift. It is hard to explain but basically he has an “in” with the big guy upstairs. In certain situations he gets these feelings, or intuitions, and when he tells me about them..I listen. I used to not, because you know, “No one is gonna tell me what to do; I’m a strong independent woman,” but we had been through enough trials and tribulations at this point that now I don’t even question it. So, fast forward to May 2020: We were sitting on our back porch talking about life and all of the things when Trev told me about this heavy feeling he had been having. The feeling he was getting was that something on my side of the family at the end of the year, around the time of our September 13th wedding date, was not going to be okay. He didn’t know what but he knew something was going to be wrong. At the time we assumed that it would be my grandparents, as they are in their late 80s and have some health issues. So, we decided to move the date up and get married May 21st, which by the way was only two and a half weeks away from this conversation. I am so thankful we got married when we did.

Listen y'all, what would unfold in the coming months is something I never imagined I would have to face, let alone at 25 years young. In future posts I will go into more detail with yall but to touch the surface, here is how the second part of my 2020 went: My mom contracted the novel Covid-19 Virus in June. A month after our wedding. She had several underlying health issues so when she caught it, I knew it wouldn’t end well. She passed away in August. Shortly after that, in September, Hurricane Laura forced my grandparents to evacuate and move in with my dad. This was part of the plan all along however when my mom was diagnosed, moving them was put on hold so that my dad’s parents wouldn’t get sick.

So there was August and September, let’s fast forward to November. On November 8th, my world was rocked once again. After just four months from my mom’s passing, my dad was diagnosed with a Stage 4 Glioblastoma (terminal brain cancer, the worst of the worst.) I’m sorry God, come again?

I know this is a lot of heavy information to conclude my first posting with, but I plan on going into much more detail in future posts. These events that occurred the second half of the year are what prompted me to start this blog. I figured I can’t be the only one going through loss and heartbreak so maybe my words and my experience can help others. My goal here is to share my story as well as my walk in faith throughout the trauma. This isn’t the type of blog that is going to sugarcoat things. Listen y’all. This is raw. Authentic. Messy. Real life.

Buckleup y'all, and hold on tight.

Stay true,

Hails