Shattered

On Tuesday, January 21, 2020, my life forever changed.

In the early morning, my husband and I woke to start the day, just like any other day. About a half-hour before my husband’s alarm rang, we heard our daughter, Cassie’s, alarm ringing. My husband groggily went to her bedroom to shut the alarm off and noticed that she was not there. This was not unusual though. There had been many occasions where Cassie woke extra early and came downstairs to use the family computer to tackle homework assignments.

My husband returned to bed, and we both fell back to sleep until his alarm woke us. As what we thought would be just like any day, my husband picked up the dog to bring her outside, and I proceeded to the bathroom. Within minutes I heard my husband yelling, but I was unable to make out what he was saying, figuring he was yelling at the dog to come back in the house from her bathroom run. At one point, as I had noticed Cassie’s light on in her room, I yelled to her from the bathroom… “Cassie, what is daddy yelling about?” No answer. Seconds later I heard my husband scream “call 911!”. I knew deep in my gut that something was seriously wrong, never imagining what I would walk into the next few minutes later.

Cassie had taken her life…and this life…as we knew it, was forever changed… never to be the same again. Our lives were completely shattered.