The young couple had just started on their happily-ever-after when tragedy struck, but she adapted to the situation and has learned to live despite the absence of her beloved husband.
Sometimes, there are such unexpected turns in life which nobody could have seen coming. They are hard to get over and become a part of us forever. In such moments, you can do only two things: either let yourself be consumed or learn to love life even more. We never know when it will all be taken away from us.
A 26-year-old married woman had to go through the death of her husband, James, from an unknown heart condition, just a few hours after they celebrated New Year's. He kissed her in the New Year but little did they know that it would be the last one. Only a few hours later, he dropped to the floor and his breathing slowed.
Once the medics arrived, she expected them to say that everything was under control. Instead, they took him to the hospital and on reaching, she was given more bad news. While doctors tried to revive him, she was told that the situation did not look good, according to Lovewhatmatters. She kept staring at the heart monitor to see a pulse and there was nothing. He passed away that night, leaving her a widowed and a few days shy of 27.
The athletic couple had been on the road for a while before this incident took place. Both of them had jobs that allowed them to travel and for the previous six months, they had been exploring the Southern states of the US. They had gotten rid of their apartment and sold all possessions before embarking on this journey. They had hoped to be a jet-setter couple and have adventures together.
He had said to her that “the number one thing people regret before they die is not traveling. Let’s do it!", she writes in her blog.
"I had no idea where to go from there. I felt homeless, I felt completely abandoned, and I felt lost," she said. She still kept going through her life. Two weeks after he passed away, she went back to work.
A few months after, she took the trip they had planned together and went to Ireland and Scotland alone. "Those were two places James and I were about to head over to and felt as though that would be a place that would either rip my heart out or have the time of my life. Luckily, it was the second one," she said.
"Many people travel during grief, and I am a huge advocate of it, but I was continuing my travels that James and I were planning on doing together. I was showing him the places that he had wanted to see," she added.
Since then, she kept her and his dream alive by continuing to travel across the world. It was during those travels that she found herself, she says. "I love being able to be proud of the life I am living and proud to know James is happy I have been able to put one foot in front of the other and move forward," she added.
She embraced life despite the difficulties she's been through and is keeping both of their dreams alive. It takes a really brave person to do what she is doing. And through it all, he lives on in her heart.
"I look back very regularly at the night James suddenly passed away. There won’t be a day that goes by that I won’t. The thing I have learned is that you can’t change the past. You can move forward and still live out your life the way you want to, and the way the person you lost would want you to," she said.
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