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Southern belle, now cutting in the PNW
Nashville → Eugene, Oregon
Hair cutting specialist. Real hair, real education.
Book at Moss Hair Studio ↓
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I genuinely did not expect this. $4,100 in five hours. You all are actually making this happen. We’re leaving Nashville in October, we’re taking the kids, we’re taking the dogs, and we’re moving to Eugene. We need help with the drive, lodging, gas, all of it. If you want to be part of this—Venmo at @kendelle-phillips or CashApp $KendellePhillips. Link in bio too. That’s it. Thank you. Seriously. #childloss #grievingmom #grievingmother #gofundme #gofundmeplease
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Almost two years ago, we lost our teenage son Zeppelin.

We’re still not okay. We kept waiting for the part where it gets easier, and it keeps getting harder. As the shock wears off, the reality of losing him, mixed with the trauma of the violence, brings us to our knees. With 8/31 approaching again, it’s clear we cannot keep doing this alone.

We are giving our boys a fraction of what they need right now. Not because we don’t love them completely, but because there is nothing left in either of us to give. For two years we’ve fought to keep going while trying to bring safety to two grieving, traumatized children. We need help.

📍So we’re moving to Oregon 😌

Kendelle’s parents are in Eugene and have offered to let us stay with them while we heal and get back on our feet. We have family and friends there who can help hold us up, and we’ll be close enough to Zeppelin’s dad in Portland to heal together.

That’s the whole plan. Get to the people and let them help.

We want to move before winter so the boys can start the school year there, and so we aren’t taking a moving truck, two cars, two kids and two big dogs over the mountains in December. Getting there is 2,300 miles and the costs of moving across the country add up fast.

We honestly can’t pay for this. We are not treading water. We went under a while ago and have been holding our breath, trying our hardest to keep going. We are both self-employed, and our income depends on us being functioning people, which right now is almost impossible. We need your help.

What we raise will go toward the move and keeping our bills current during the transition.

Some of you already showed up for us once in the worst days of our lives, and we have never forgotten it. Asking again is the hardest part. But we’d rather ask than keep pretending, and we’d rather our kids have parents who are present and healthy than parents who were too proud.

If you can give, thank you. If you can’t, sharing this is real help too. To donate, the GoFundMe 🔗 is on our pages. 

We’re trying to get to the people who can hold us up until we can do it again on our own. ❤️

-Mikey, Kendelle, Luca & Florin 
#
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“How many kids do you have?”😵‍💫
There are four people behind me in the checkout line and I have about a second and a half to decide who I’m going to be today.

The easy answer erases him. The true answer means I’m about to spend the next four minutes comforting a stranger about my own dead son while my ice cream melts.

So it depends. Slept okay, feeling sturdy, somebody who seems like they can hold it? I say three. One of them died. His name is Zeppelin. Or something like that.

Running on four hours of sleep and already crying in the car earlier? I say two kids and I hate myself the whole drive home.

Nobody tells you that losing a child turns a small talk question into a math problem. Every bereaved parent I know does this same calculation at the pediatrician, at the nail salon, at the new job. We are all standing in line doing arithmetic nobody can see.

If you’re a grieving mom or dad reading this, what’s your answer at the checkout counter? I want to know I’m not the only one who changes it.

#ChildLoss #GriefSupport #BereavedMom #LossOfAChild #GriefJourney
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First time home since Zeppelin died. I’m back in my childhood bedroom watching the sun set, and Oregon is being ridiculously beautiful about it.

It’s good to be here. I genuinely mean that. And there’s still a Zeppelin-shaped hole sitting right in the middle of every second, everywhere I go. Every sunset. Every laugh. Every hug. 

Grief isn’t just on the hard days. It climbs right into the beautiful ones too. And I’m okay with that ❤️‍🩹

If you’ve ever felt that, the good and the gone in the same breath, you’re not broken and you’re not doing it wrong. You’re just carrying them everywhere you go. Even home. Especially home.

Who are you carrying?
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