Well, hello there. It’s been a hot minute since I last updated this blog. And a lot has happened in that year and a half or so since my last post. To give you the short version: 2025 sucked.

Still here and want the longer version? Okay. Here goes…

Trigger warning…there’s a lot of death (people & pet)

To start with, I haven’t talked on here about my relationship with my mother the last few years, but it was non-existent. She wasn’t safe for me to be around and I finally had to step away from the relationship. It wasn’t a choice I made easily, but ultimately it was the best choice. I know that people have opinions about children going no-contact with their parent(s), and all I can say is unless you are involved personally in a relationship you have no idea what the whole story is. What you see publicly is not necessarily how things are behind closed doors. I genuinely hope you never find yourself in a situation where you have to make the decision to go no-contact. And if you have been in that situation and had to make that choice, I know it wasn’t easy.

I share all that because it helps to set up what happened in January of 2025. 2025 started with mom getting diagnosed with cancer. It was aggressive. Because of being no-contact with mom, I’d also had to go no-contact with dad. I re-established contact with him and we met for breakfast to catch up and discuss the situation with mom’s health. I’m so glad we got to have that breakfast.

At the end of January 2025, I had my tubes removed. Given the political climate in the U.S., it seemed safer than risk another early-term pregnancy loss. February 4th, a week after I had surgery, mom passed away. Thirteen days later, dad was supposed to return to work, and when he didn’t show up for his shift, my aunt was called to do a wellness check. Sometime between the evening of February 15 and morning of February 17, dad passed away in his sleep. He was very peaceful, according to those who saw him. While I was prepared for mom’s death (as much as one can be), I wasn’t prepared for dad to go. I knew it was possible because they were so close, but his health was pretty good and I thought we were going to have a little bit of time together. His death almost destroyed me, and almost a year later I’m still struggling.

In the midst of all this, my dog, Krypto, started acting off, but I didn’t initially think it was anything other than him reacting to my stress. He always seemed to be very in tune with how I was feeling. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Tom, my husband, noticed something seemed really off and took him to the vet. Turned out, Krypto had a very aggressive form of oral cancer. This was diagnosed not quite two weeks after dad died. The vet told us we’d be lucky to get a month. We weren’t lucky. The day after our tenth wedding anniversary, we said goodbye to Krypto.

Not even two weeks after we lost Krypto, my folks’ cat, Zazzy, was diagnosed with cancer and we lost her as well.

So yeah, 2025 sucked. I spent large chunks of it on heavy meds that basically sedated me because I couldn’t function. I did start improving toward the end of the year. In October, I wrote my next book. It’s a weird book about love and grief. I’m currently trying to sell my parents’ condo, and the market is pretty cold. It’s a bit stressful.

Anyway, I’m still here. Some days are better than others. Last week was the one year anniversary of mom’s death. Tom and I ate a bunch of seafood because she loved seafood. Next week is the anniversary of dad being found. I’m releasing my next book on that day because that date is always going to be devastating, and I need something happy to make it a little less heartbreaking and a little easier to get through.