A grief memoir that tells the truth. If you’ve ever wondered, Am I stuck? Am I crazy? Is it just me? This book answers you with one clear message: What you feel is normal. Then and Now: The Evolution of Grief is not a book about moving on. It is about what grief actually feels like in real life... in the early days when you can barely breathe, and in the long years that follow when you learn to carry what never leaves. Each chapter begins with Then - Kym’s real journal entries from the first years after her son and husband died. These are the pages she wrote as she tried to come to grips with the unbelievable, clawing and crying and sometimes screaming her way through days that felt endless. These entries show what early grief looks like when you are living inside it and when you feel utterly alone. The Now sections return to those same moments years later. Here, Kym writes as a grieving mother, a widow, and a grief educator. She shares what has softened, what has stayed the same, and how grief keeps reshaping life long after everyone else assumes you’re “doing better.” Each chapter closes with a Dear Broken Hearted letter written directly to you. Kym’s hope is that these letters give you the one thing every grieving heart needs most: to know you are not alone. There are no stages here. No timelines. No instructions on how to get over it. What you will find is honesty. Love. And the lived truth that grief does not end, but it does change. If you feel shattered, drowning, or unseen... if you are years into loss and still wondering why you aren’t “over it”... these pages will sit with you and remind you of what the world often forgets: Your love still matters. Your grief is normal. Your person is still yours.