your life drastically changed over the last couple of years?
ED: On April 16, 2014, I woke up filled with joy. As an entrepreneur, I had a flexible schedule that I thoroughly enjoyed. My family unit was as I’d hoped for; being a wife and a mom. Of course, there were challenges that existed, but nothing seemed daunting that Paul and I couldn’t handle. I was in a good place and felt excited about the path ahead for the Davis crew. Part of that excitement came from the conversation my husband and I had that morning. We talked and shared about our dreams and vision for the future. We were both on fire with ideas and knew that together we would be able to accomplish some great things.
Well, before the day ended, my world was completely shaken with the unexpected death of my husband. He had been complaining of cramps in his leg after attempting to play tennis that day. When I got in the bed a little before 10 p.m., he was already laying down and insisted he didn’t need anything. I closed my eyes, confident that he’d feel better by morning. Before morning had the chance to come, I discovered that my husband had died in his sleep…one month after our daughter turned two; two months before our third wedding anniversary; three months before his 50th birthday. I remember thinking…” I can’t do this without him.” I was talking about living; parenting. I was devastated.
Losing my husband was a complete shock to my system and broke my heart like nothing I had ever experienced before. I wanted to crawl in my bed and hide under the covers. until someone told me the nightmare was over. I wanted to run away from everyone and everything to a secret place and cry my eyes out until all the tears dried up.
Instead, I looked at my baby girl and decided to push forward with every ounce of energy I could muster up. For her, I had to adjust the sails to go with the windstorm that had just blown my way. In an instant, I became a widowed mom, responsible for the livelihood of myself and this beautiful child we created. I was used to taking care of myself. I became overwhelmed thinking about all the decisions I would have to make about my daughter, the parent-teacher conferences and the questions that would come about why she doesn’t have a daddy.
In our house, Paul took care of bath time and bedtime. Let me tell you the first time I had to take on those two tasks, along with working, dinner and other household chores…I was one wiped out mama! I’ll say it time and again, children are not