Meri Brown has a lot to say about two people who meant an awful lot to her.
On Tuesday, the same day on which photos from Garrison Brown’s memorial service were made available to the public, this Sister Wives star shared a lengthy social media post.
“Today, March 26, marks 3 years since the passing of my beautiful mom, and 3 weeks since the passing of our sweet Garrison,” the TLC personality wrote to open this message.
Along with her caption, Meri included a photo of herself and her mom (who died at the age of 76 in 2021) and a photo of herself and Garrison (Janelle and Kody’s son, who committed suicide on March 4).
“Grief is a myriad of emotions that include despair and anger, feelings of pain, or hopelessness. It’s a universal human emotion and a natural response to loss,” continued Meri.
“Grief is also love, for without feeling the love, the pain of loss wouldn’t be so great.
“Grief sends you on a roller coaster of emotions, never knowing the twists and turns ahead, whether you’re headed into an upturn or a free fall.
“Grief is not linear. There’s no timeline or rulebook to follow. It’s not the same for any two people, and no two people handle it in the same exact way.”
Over the last several days, we’ve heard a lot from members of the Brown family, as various loved ones remember Garrison and pay tribute to the late 25-year old.
Meri, for her part, got candid on Tuesday about how she has experienced loss — from the deaths of her loved ones to the splits with ex-husband, Kody, and most recent boyfriend, Amos, writing:
“I’ve had my share of loss, both through death and the endings of relationships, and each loss is individual and has a unique timeline of manageability.”
Perhaps hoping to help others deal with similar situations, Meri went on:
“Having lost to death both parents, three siblings, and now one of our boys, I recognize my coping mechanisms.
“I recognize when I need to go inward and be alone, letting the grief move through me as I cry alone into my pillow.
“I recognize when I need to surround myself with my trusted people to gather strength from them.
“I recognize when I need to attempt, in some small way, a semblance of normalcy. In each step, it takes a little bit of bravery to recognize and give that gift to myself.”
Meri previously mourned Garrison a day after Janelle and Kody announced he had passed away.
“My timeline of grief, the way I deal with it, the emotions I feel through it, might be different than yours, and yours may be different than the next person’s,” she followed up with now.
“Neither is right, and neither is wrong. It just is.
“Life will never go ‘back’ to normal after a loss, that particular ‘normal’ will never be again. But it will go forward. It always moves forward. It then becomes a question of, what will you do in that forward?
“What will that new normal look like? What will you do to honor the love and the relationship with the person you lost?”
As we look forward to Sister Wives Season 19 and hearing a lot more from the Browns on this sensitive and very personal topic, Meri concluded:
For me, I will remember and celebrate the good times and beautiful memories.
I will honor myself and feel the grief when it arises because it inevitably will.
But most importantly, I will live, and I will love every day of that living!