Follow the Process
I document the process & the lessons behind it.
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Prologue
May 12, 2020.
9:59 PM.
We were in the middle of quarantine.
The world already felt strange.
Empty streets.
Everyone stuck inside.
Silence everywhere.
Then a message came through that would split my life into two versions:
before that night…
and everything after.
I remember seeing the text come in from my sister-in-law.
She never texted me.
And it wasn’t short.
Right away, something felt wrong.
I opened the message.
“Your brother is very sick! His liver is bleeding"
I just froze.
I had never dealt with something like this before.
I remember sitting there staring at my phone, trying to process what I was reading,
hoping maybe I misunderstood it somehow.
But deep down…
I knew.
A few moments later, I walked upstairs to my mom and handed her the phone.
I couldn’t even say the words out loud.
I just sat there speechless while my sister-in-law broke the news to her over the phone.
And I still remember the silence after.
The kind of silence that changes a house forever.
My mom just kept saying:
“How could this happen?”
And honestly…
none of us had an answer.
The Drive
The very next morning, we rented a car and drove across the country to Florida.
I remember the roads feeling endless.
State after state.
Exit after exit.
The world was still shut down from the pandemic,
so everything felt strangely quiet.
I just remember staring out the window watching state lines pass by .
No music.
No conversations.
Just silence.
46 Hours Later
When we finally arrived in Florida,
Everything felt heavy.
Like the air itself had changed.
Nobody really knew what to say.
It didn’t even feel real yet.
But the moment it truly became real for me…
The funeral.
I remember looking over at my mom and seeing her completely break down.
I had never seen her cry like that before.
She just kept crying.
And in that moment,
something inside me shifted.
Not just grief.
Responsibility.
Because when I looked at my nephews…
I realized they were going to need someone.
And whether I felt ready or not…
I knew I couldn’t run from that.
