Michelle Hord
Survival looks different for everyone. For Michelle Hord, it was about finding ways to honor her daughter Gabrielle’s life, which was taken at only 7 years old by her then husband, in an unthinkable act of violence that no one could have imagined. But her lessons on grief are not just for those who have experienced tragedy. In this episode, Michelle shares how we can take back our narrative after loss of any kind, and decide what the next chapters will be.
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In this episode:
The impact of divorce.
Where to begin when processing trauma.
The importance of a support system.
Michelle’s commitment to honoring Gabrielle’s legacy.
The journey to healing.
LINKS & RESOURCES:
Website: www.michelledhord.com
Book: The Other Side of Yet
Charity: Gabrielle's Wings
Facebook: Gabrielle's Wings
Instagram: @mdhord @gabrielleswings
Wise Words:
When you lose someone, everyone in the family loses someone different. Everyone that loved that person loses someone different, even your sibling.
Somehow in those moments of extreme trauma, I think the only way we can survive it is to create space from our bodies. And it felt like I had dove into the deep end of a pool and sound and sights and feeling was somewhat fragmented and slower and warped.
Somehow it was true that this man who I had known my entire adult life, who had never threatened any violence, who was a jerk (which is why I was divorcing him), but who always seemingly loved our little girl had murdered our child.
This was worse than my worst nightmare. You know your worst nightmare is your child gets sick or your child's hit by a drunk driver. Your worst nightmare isn't the person who you would've, at one point, you considered your best friend killing the child that they loved more than anything.
I was determined that there had to be something that I was supposed to do in this world that was so powerful that evil came at me with everything it had, and I was gonna be damned if I got taken out.
I think we miss this with children. As much as we want to, we can't protect them from the things we have no control over. We can't.
It's something that's so important to me that other people understand after tragedy, after loss, after trauma, that there are some chapters you don't get to write. You don't get a vote, but you can own the narrative. You can take it back and you can decide what those next blank pages will have on them.
Master in interpreting intention versus focusing on what's said.
The most important thing is to understand that we all will experience grief and trauma and loss.
The key is imagining what the other side can look like.