I’ll be honest. I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook because it’s bombarded with opinionated pieces and complaining. Try as I might to select what I wanna see and Facebook just has a mind of its own. I do really appreciate some of the funny stuff that finds its way in there though.

Today is one of those days where I was glad I hopped on quick to check my feed and messages because I saw a post about Kira Martin. It included a video of her story about coming back from a near-death experience after giving birth to her 5th child and then going on to enter and compete in a fitness competition several weeks later.

In the Facebook post I saw, the poster had mentioned her own personal struggle with depression but I didn’t put things together. I went on to view the video and it made me really emotional. I was in awe at what Kira was able to accomplish within one year of fitness training (and being a wife and mom of FIVE). She looked amazing and seemed to be in a really good place. She mentioned that she hoped to compete but that her main goal was overall wellness and longevity.

When I viewed her video I felt so happy for her that she seemed to have recovered and seemed to be on the up and up. Recovery is hard by itself, nevermind with five little people to look after.

And then I learned that she was no longer living.

Kira had clearly gone through a very traumatic experience immediately following her pregnancy but I learned that that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Portrait of a Mother: The Path to Recovery

After I viewed her video, I ended up clicking over to her Facebook link just out of curiosity as I actually thought it may be a fitness page or something. Then I started noticing the comments from her friends and family (I assume) about her suicide.

It broke my heart.

I started scrolling through her posts and it seemed that her and I had a lot of similarities. I’ll let you do the digging if you choose to.

One of the things I saw was that she had actually written a book prior to her passing so I hope it is able to get published somehow because her story needs to be heard. And shared.

This is just another one of those reminders that we never really know what kind of battles people are fighting. Everything can be seemingly perfect on the outside while completely crumbling on the inside.

See: My Thoughts on Depression and Robin Williams

I’m saying prayers and sending love to Kira’s friends and family – especially her husband and her five children – for their great loss. I hope you will too. Grieving is endless and really damn hard.

I hope memories of Kira bring them some comfort and peace.

Mindi