Welcome!
I began blogging in 2009 to process my feelings after we received an infertility diagnosis and, thus, named my blog My Irreverent View of Fertility. Although our journey to become parents was ultimately successful, both of our children were born with congenital heart defects (CHDs), with my son’s being much more severe than my daughter’s. When my son went into the hospital for his second open heart surgery, I began a separate website called Fixing Patrick’s Heart and blogged our journey with Patrick there. After Patrick died, I began a blog to provide advice and resources to people dealing with grieving friends and family—a Dos and Don’ts or What I Learned type of thing. When we were unable to afford to continue FPH, I returned to writing at my original blog. However, over time, what I wrote about no longer had much relation to the blog’s title. At that point, I started a new blog—My Halfacre. Unfortunately, through a frustrating series of events, the contents of that blog also disappeared. So, in an effort to both compile all of my writings in a single place and make them more accessible, I have included all of my previous blogs as separate pages under their original titles. Feel free to check them out. All of the posts from the previous version of My Halfacre, as well as all new material, can be found under Mary’s Musings.
Please note: Portions of this website are still under construction while I transfer all of my previous content here. All posts and written content have been restored, but images may be missing.
My Writings
Mary’s Musings
Here is where you will find all of my new writings beginning in 2018.
My IVF (Irreverent View of Fertility)
My first blog, covering 2008 through 2018 except for the 2014 posts related to Patrick.
Fixing Patrick’s Heart
Updates on Patrick’s condition from June to September 2014 .
Photo Credit: Karim MANJRA (@karim_manjra)
Guide to Grief for NonGrievers
Advice and resources for people wanting to help friends and family who are struggling with grief.
Weathered Hearts
My memoir, beginning with our infertility diagnosis and ending shortly after Patrick’s death.
Why My Halfacre?
Photo Credit: Patrick Hendry (@worldsbetweenlines)
“[E]very single one of us at birth is given an emotional acre all our own. . . . As long as you don’t hurt anyone, you really get to do with your acre as you please. You can plant fruit trees or flowers or alphabetized rows of vegetables, or nothing at all. If you want your acre to look like a giant garage sale, or an auto-wrecking yard, that’s what you get to do with it. There’s a fence around your acre, though, with a gate, and if people keep coming onto your land and sliming it or trying to get you to do what they think is right, you get to ask them to leave. And they have to go, because this is your acre.”