Madonna Badger lost her daughters and parents in a tragic fire on Christmas morning 2011. She shares her words of comfort for Cassidy Stay, the brave 15-year-old who survived the massacre of her family in her Texas home on July 9.
Dear Cassidy,
No one knows how you feel right now but you. And that is probably questionable...I still don't know how I "feel" half the time.
So I don't have any advice for you. I can only tell you what happened to me.
Day by day everything changed. Hour by hour.
My sadness is still so deep but it has changed. I accept it more now.
I screamed and cried tears that felt like blood.
And here is the thing that saved me. LOVE. The love of my children and my parents that is still in my heart.
And the LOVE of friends and doctors and perfect strangers.
The love in the world that has cradled me and soothed me and cared for me.
And accepting the LOVE all around me has helped my forever broken heart.
So even though I said I didn't want to give you advice...I will say just this one thing.
Try to let the love all around you in...and little by little you will feel a tiny bit better.
And that's all there is. LOVE.
I love you.
Madonna