{"id":9720,"date":"2026-02-21T10:25:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=9720"},"modified":"2026-02-21T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:25:30","slug":"helping-children-in-a-shelter-find-halloween-costumes-changed-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=9720","title":{"rendered":"Helping children in a shelter find Halloween costumes changed everything"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two years ago, a drunk driver killed my husband, Mark, and our teenage children, Emily and Josh. Since that night, I haven\u2019t truly lived\u2014just moved through a silent house filled with memories. Mark and I had met in college after he accidentally set off a fire alarm in cooking class. We built a simple, happy life\u2014burnt toast, crayons, laughter. Then one pizza run ended it all. His last words to me were, \u201cAlways.\u201d<\/p>\n

I withdrew from the world until a flyer for a Halloween costume drive at a children\u2019s shelter caught my eye. I went to the attic and found the costumes I\u2019d sewn\u2014Emily\u2019s bumblebee wings, Josh\u2019s firefighter suit. I donated them, then collected more from neighbors.<\/p>\n

At the shelter, I saw a little girl wearing Emily\u2019s bumblebee costume. She hugged me, thanked me, and softly asked, \u201cMaybe you could be my mom?\u201d We were both alone.<\/p>\n

I began the adoption process, and in time she became my daughter. She\u2019s eight now\u2014bright, joyful, and filling the house with life again. I still carry my grief, but loving her has helped me live, not just exist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Two years ago, a drunk driver killed my husband, Mark, and our teenage children, Emily and Josh. Since that night, I haven\u2019t truly lived\u2014just moved […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9722,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720\/revisions\/9722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}