In Loving Memory of My Brother

|5X FEATURED · SPOTLIGHT STORY|

Learning to cope with death is one of the most challenging obstacles any of us have to face, especially if that death is unexpected. When your whole world has changed, what do you do to overcome grief and keep your loved one's memory alive?

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I never knew how much trauma can affect a person until after my older brother died unexpectedly on August 17th, 2021. I came out of the experience as not the Victoria I was used to, but the Victoria who now had a massive hole in her heart. I come from a long line of fighters. My family and I pulled off different strategies to help us move on from such a devastating death-strategies that I am going to share in this book. Sometimes, the best way to overcome grief is to write about it. After all, writing is an escape to a different world where I still have my Green Guardian.

These pieces and pictures I'm going to share with you are not meant to depress anybody but to illustrate just how wonderful a person Matthew was. His story is sad, but it's a story of hope. His legacy remains in my heart today, and I want to share it because I know I'm not the only person who has lost somebody so unexpectedly.

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Ovid (on when his brother died):
"iamque decem vitae frater geminaverat annos, cum perit, et coepi parte carere mei."
("And he had just doubled ten years of his life when he died, and with him, a part of me.")

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