30. After she lost her job at TJ’s, Erin got a job as a personal trainer at a gym called Blast! Fitness. She had first gotten involved with the gym when she started to get extremely enthusiastic about and dedicated to her own physical fitness. We talked a lot about it and she told me that she saw it as a way of taking this negative aspect of her life, her body image issues and self-consciousness, and turning it into a positive and healthy thing for her. She began to be very conscious of the way she ate and spent a lot of time exercising. While spending so much time at they gym, she made friends with the people that worked there and decided to become a personal trainer, herself. She worked there for a while and really enjoyed her work, particularly working with older or injured clients who needed more rehabilitative work rather than strength training or general fitness. It was in this work that she discovered a passion of hers and it was a big step for Erin in her journey of self-discovery. For a long time, Erin had had this feeling that she wasn’t doing anything meaningful with her life, that she hadn’t found her purpose or found a path for herself. It was something that we talked about a lot and when she discovered this passion for helping elderly or injured people to rehabilitate their bodies and their lives, it was a big deal for her. She decided to enroll in a college for Physical Therapist Assistants at Fox Valley College. It was something we talked about in depth because we had always planned to only live in Chicago for 5 years or so and we had already begun discussing where we were going to go next (Colorado, Oregon and California were high on the list) and obviously her enrolling in a course program that lasted about 2 years would change things. But of course I was happy for her to have found her passion and was more than happy to stay in Chicago for a couple more years. The materials arrived from the college very shortly before Erin’s death, including a set of smocks like the one in this picture. When I see this smock, it reminds me of the excitement and passion that Erin had about physical therapy and how happy I was for her. It’s also sad, of course, because of the fact that she took her own life just at a time when it seemed she was starting to figure things out.
What a beautiful way to honor Erin on her birthday. Thank you for continuing to keep her spirit alive and always sharing your love for her. Your words are genuine and thoughtful, something she always appreciated. The coffee mugs were a Christmas gift from me, with the thought you guys would each have one. She could not wait to use them, Lol. The pure vulgarity alone was enough to make that mug her favorite! Love you Aaron, I think of you, and her every day. -Jen
Thank you, Jen! I thought they were a gift and I’m happy to know they were from you. I’m keeping her vulgarity alive and still using that mug these days. I love and think about you, too, and I know that she lives on in your heart, so thank you for keeping her spirit alive, as well.