Look at this face! What a privilege that I occasionally get to have coffee with this lovely, glowing young woman and stellar writer.

Note from Becky about this  blog:  Tricia Williford does an amazing daily blog at http://www.tricialottwilliford.wordpress.com.  Follow her blog to get updates about her upcoming memoir and tell her I sent you.

Just a few short years ago, my darling, beautiful, brilliant friend Tricia Williford lost her husband suddenly, two days before Christmas. He was at home and with complications of a flu-like illness, died in front of her eyes. Her gorgeous, honest memoir, And Life Comes Back, debuts in February. (She will also be speaking at Donald Miller’s Storytelling Conference that month. Here’s  a link to her fabulous blog about how THAT came about, titled “The Night Donald Miller Changed My Life”

Anyway, her blog today so gripped my heart, I had to share it with you all.   When Tricia’s husband died,  her two adorable, freckle-faced innocent red-headed boys were just pre-school ages. Last week when one of the boys told a friend at school  that his Daddy died around Christmas,  the little friend didn’t believe it.  Likely because what child can believe that something like that can really happen? Who loses a Daddy? And of all times, at Christmas? My admiration for Tricia as a writer is only eclipsed by my admiration for her a single mother, a too-young widow whose faith has gone through the valley of agony and come out shining, like a Christmas star.  Every year I stay on the watch for a story or blog that pulls my heart into the essence of Christmas. This year, this is it.