Kristy’s Story

I wanted to share my story with you in hope of producing some hope and comfort to others who’ve experienced loss.

I lost my mom to cancer in 2018. Shortly after my mother died, my family started building bluebird houses in her memory needing one last connection to her. The bluebird carries the universal symbol of joy and happiness along with it and was her favorite bird. We’ve since come together to connect with thousands of people across the country through the common thread of loss and over a shared passion for the little bluebird. It’s been such a gift to be making a difference in her memory while creating homes for her favorite bird. We’ve partnered with several grief and cancer organizations and community groups to offer our family’s bluebird houses -handmade with love, as workshops using our hands together through grief and have been so humbled by the community we’ve managed to build surrounding loss in life.

I also wrote a children’s book about processing as a message of hope to help guide my children through their grief.

It illustrates the normal emotions that are experienced when grieving the loss of a loved one. We witness the way death impacts a family as we follow the journey of a beloved bluebird family on their visits with others impacted by the loss of grandma bluebird. We shortly realize through the story that finding ways to remember your loved one together is also the best way to heal together and that although grandma bluebird may be gone from our nest, she’ll never be gone from our hearts.

We are so thankful to be continuing to make a difference in my mother’s memory and to be creating cedar monuments of hope for the bluebird of happiness. Loss can be a little less isolating when we help each other through it.