For the first three months after Angela lost her daughter, Alonna, Angela said that she was in a fog and did not move. Alonna was shot and killed just as she was being dropped off to attend a bonfire at a friend’s house. Unbeknownst to her, Alonna was arriving just as an altercation was beginning in the front yard. Angela’s amazing, talented, and beloved daughter was gone, and Angela didn’t know how to continue living herself.

Months passed without Angela even being able to stay in her own home. Even getting up to shower was difficult. At some point, however, Angela had a realization. She thought, ‘I need somebody and somebody needs me.’ Angela needed help that only another bereaved mom could give her and knew that she could give other grieving moms help as well. After being unable to find a group for grieving moms, Angela started a monthly support group where grieving moms could gather and offer love and affirmation to each other. She named the organization ‘Alonna’s Song‘ in memory of her wonderful daughter.

More recently, Angela realized that she could do more than help bereaved moms locally in her state of Indiana. She could be a link to connect grieving moms across the country and even around the globe. Angela says, “Maybe I don’t have the exact right words that will give comfort to a mom in California, but perhaps a mom in Alabama does.” I want to be the link that will bring those two women together. Through her podcast, Angel Moms… “Hopes of Heaven”, Angela does just that. She shares stories of angel moms everywhere so we can support each other by hearing other stories of loss and hope. (This week, Angela interviews me.)

Angela ends every episode of her podcast with a final question, ‘Mama, what are your hopes for heaven?’ Angela’s personal answer is this. “It is my hope that heaven is having heaven be everything that I have ever read about heaven and more! My hope is to be totally blown away. My hope it that Alonna will be there waiting and that it will feel like no time has passed at all.” Thank you, Angela. Those hopes are all of our hopes as well.