Bartlett-Heritage Funeral Home & Cremation Center

11/05/2025

My heart holds her close always 💙🥺

11/01/2025

“I Didn’t Feel It Break”

I didn’t feel it break
not the way people think.
It wasn’t one big shatter.
It was slow.
Cruel.
A ripping from the inside out.

I was still breathing when it happened,
still standing,
still moving,
but something inside me
was screaming so loud
the world went quiet.

My heart didn’t just crack
it splattered.
It burst under the weight of a name
I still whisper every night.
His name.
My child.

I tried to hold it together,
press the pieces to my chest
so I wouldn’t lose another part of him.
But it cut me
over and over again.
And the blood isn’t blood anymore
it’s memory,
it’s pain that never clots.

They say time heals,
but time only reminds me
how long it’s been
since I heard his voice.
Healing?
No.
I just got better at pretending.

People look at me
and see a mother surviving
but I’m not surviving.
I’m haunted.
I walk around holding a heart
that’s no longer mine,
just the remains
of what love looks like
after it dies.

And every shard that falls
still bleeds his name.
Every piece still screams,
“I miss you.”

Written by: Marlena L Bowdery
Many Phases And Faces Of A Mother's Grief

11/01/2025

09/28/2025

This looks about right

09/28/2025

You don’t understand what real pain is until the day you close your Mom’s casket.
That final sound—the cold, hollow click—tears your soul apart in a way no words will ever capture.

It’s the moment you realize you’ll never hear her gentle voice soothe your heart again.
Never feel the warmth of her hand in yours.
Never see her waiting by the door, her eyes lighting up just because you came home.

The world outside keeps moving, pretending nothing has changed.
But inside, time has stopped—you’re frozen in that second,
watching the woman who gave you life,
your comfort, your shelter, your everything,
being lowered into the ground.

That’s when grief stops being a feeling and becomes who you are.
That’s when emptiness takes root—not as a fleeting ache,
but as the life you now carry.

Because when you bury your Mom,
you don’t just say goodbye to a person.
You bury the one soul who loved you first,
loved you most,
and can never, ever be replaced. 💔

09/13/2025