tori.

i have started umpteen posts on the subject that's been rolling through my mind and my heart for the past month. it is a story that is so gut wrenching with it's debilitating sadness that there have been few days that i have not thought about her and wept since i first read her story.

a young mother... just 37... lost her battle with cancer this past tuesday. it was just over a year ago, after giving birth to her beautiful son, that she found out that she had cancer. just a year... and now she's gone. what a void. what an immense field of sadness that is seen and felt by so many. i didn't know tori, nor did i even know of her until a month ago, when her battle was starting to slow. but we are both women and mothers and i feel like there's this bridge… one shared heart that allows us to feel what one another is feeling.

and this collective heart is breaking. breaking for her two small babes that will know their mother's love, but won't feel her touch. breaking for her husband who will no longer feel his wife's loving kiss. breaking for her family and friends who long for one more hug. and breaking for her. all of life's moments that were just beginning that she had to say goodbye to.

before lucy, my grieving would have been for her children, husband, family, friends. i would have been saddened by the void it left in the lives of those left here. but now, my heart is heavy for her. for the knowledge and deep feeling of loss at what she'd be missing. i can't imagine knowing the end was near and that you'd be leaving your children. i honestly cannot handle the thought. and knowing that she had to endure that is gut wrenching.

every ounce of my being is with you and your circle of loved ones, tori. every ounce.