A personal spoken testimony by Betsy Guerra recounting the death of her daughter (date referenced: August 25, 2013), the immediate grief and a priest's counsel distinguishing two ways to honor loss (through suffering vs. through love, gratitude, and service), and her conscious decision to pursue joy. Two days after the loss, at her daughter's celebration of life, she felt a powerful conviction and declared "I am a woman of faith," framing faith as the force that turned her pain into purpose. The talk expands "faith" to mean faith in oneself, the process, supportive people, and something bigger (God), and presents faith as a means to overcome personal crises and to build service-oriented work.
Chapters
August 25, 2013. God did not make my daughter's heart beat. That night. I managed to fall asleep. And suddenly I found myself on the.
Bathroom floor, rocking back and forth like a deranged woman wanting to pull my head off. Because I couldn't bear the thought of reality.
I could not bear it. The next day, I was sitting on the floor of my walk in closet, hiding from the people that were there to support me, who reminded me of this cruel reality. And on that walking floor, walking closet floor, I received a friend of mine, a priest who came to visit. And we're sitting there, my husband, the priest and I, and my husband, who.
Knew joy, who was the happiest man on earth along with me, asked him.
Father, you've seen this before. Is it possible to be happy again?
Can we be happy again?
And the priest said, some people are, and some people are never happy again. What's the difference, Father? What's the difference? Those who are never happy again choose to honor through suffering. The more they cry, the more they loved. And those who are happy again choose to honor through love, gratitude and service.
At that moment, the day after I lost my daughter, I decided I was going to be like the latter people. I am going to be happy again. I'm going to show honor, love my daughter through my joy, through. Through my greatness.
But as soon as I stood up from that floor, nothing has changed. So I asked myself, like, how.
How do I go from hurt, from the excruciating pain that was penetrating my bones to joy, to rising, to becoming the person God created me to be? How?
And the answer was revealed to me just two days later at my daughter's celebration of life. I was in church, and it was time for me to go up and speak in front of the lectern. And I had my husband next to me, And I knew he was supporting me, but he needed as much support as I did. And I didn't even know what I was going to say.
What do you say? What do you say when your life is over?
And I just stood there, and my heart was racing, and I didn't even know what was going on and why I had to be in that position. And then suddenly something overcame me, like this force, this power.
And I felt compelled to begin my speech about my daughter, my eulogy, by.
Saying, I am a woman of faith. That's it. Faith. Faith is what was going to get.
Me from excruciating pain to joy. Faith is what got me from human.
Abilities to cope to greatness.
Faith.
Faith is what's going to help all of us overcome that addiction or rise above the divorce.
Faith is what helps you fight that illness that is threatening your life. Faith is what holds you up when your knees give in. Faith is what helps you find love when you've given up on it. Faith is what helps us create businesses that serve and elevate humanity.
Faith. Faith in what? Faith in your ability to do hard things. Things. Faith in the process. The journey.
It is this journey that's meant for you to rise up.
Faith in the people supporting you. But above all, faith in something bigger, which I call God. And that faith elevated me. And I'm here to help you elevate your life with it.
