When Tragedy Strikes
TRIGGER WARNING: A planned vacation turns into a life-altering emergency, and I end up recording from my son’s couch with no outline, no studio, and no easy answers. What I do have is the truth: our family was met with a sudden tragedy tied to a swatting incident, followed by a police shooting, and we are now living in the long aftermath of trauma, medical crisis, and a new reality that includes paralysis and rehab.
I talk through what it feels like when the ground drops out from under you, and you cannot rewind the moment. There is the heartbreak and anger, but there is also the strange survival mode where your brain clings to logistics: who to call, how to travel back and forth, how to support family, how to handle medical bills, and how to keep showing up for what’s in front of you. I also sit with a question that so many of us face in different ways: what do we do when trauma is unfolding right in front of us, and we cannot stop it?
What keeps me steady is what I witnessed firsthand: pain and joy existing in the same room. A smile. A birthday. A person still reaching for life. That pulls me back to the simplest kind of resilience and trauma recovery I know how to practice right now: live today, focus on what I can control, let go of what I cannot, and look for small moments of joy in the present.
If you feel led, I share a transparent way to support our family financially via Venmo, and I ask for prayer. If you’ve ever felt like freedom was being stripped away, I hope you’ll hear this as a hand on your shoulder. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find these real stories of recovery.