I write to update you on my progress and that of my blog Run Unashamed. I signed up for the 10 k. race in Portsmouth and made arrangements for my visit to Maryclaire’s family. I want to thank every person who contributed moral support to my endeavor and also money to the scholarship in Maryclaire’s honor.
In these past five months, I have taken time to reflect on the past thirty years of my life and Maryclaire’s significance in it as I have grown and evolved. These five months have been a time of great sadness...and also of gratitude, this last due to my realization that I had a caring friend in my life when I really needed one.
I am a different person now than before Maryclaire’s passing—more honest with myself, more honed in on what is important in my life and why.
However, I have felt of late exhausted from sharing my story in a public forum. I have reached a point—six weeks earlier than I had intended--where my mourning needs to be more private, with friends, therapist, and soon with the Paullis family. Although the connections that I have made with people who read the blog and emailed me has been very special, and certainly a critical part of the journey, I am now in an emotional place that merits a discontinuation of the blog.
You have all been wonderful, and I am grateful. I will send a photo of the Big Day on 11 June at the Market Square 10 k.
Blessings, as my dear friend Maryclaire would write, in ending such a note,
Stacy