Epilogue
December 15, 2024
“Only but for the Grace of God go I. I am so grateful to be alive! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!”
I have said this prayer thousands of times since August 1993.
I don’t know how I survived that night in The Dome when I took a razor blade to my wrists. I just thank God every single day that I did.
That desperate, broken 22-year-old kid had no idea that the one-way ticket he bought six months later would become the foundation for the entire life I get to live today.
Because of that 100-day adventure — because I was brave enough to run toward something when everything felt hopeless — I found my way back to myself. I found God. I found purpose. I found the courage to keep going.
Thirty years later, after the house fire, after losing Curt, and after every other reminder that we don’t know how much time we get, I am more grateful than ever.
I am living in the relationship of my dreams. I am in a career I love. My body and mind are strong and healthy. And I have the profound honor of giving back — especially to McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation.
None of this would exist without that scared but determined kid who stepped off the plane in Ireland with nothing but a camera and a prayer.
There is hope.
If you are hurting right now — if the voices are loud and the darkness feels overwhelming — please know this:
You are not alone. Your story is not over. There is help, and there is another chapter waiting for you.
Call or text a friend. Call or text a family member. Or call or text 988 right now.
A portion of any support this story receives goes directly to McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation, which is doing incredible work in our hometown of Kearney and beyond.
Thank you for coming with me on this journey.
From the bottom of my heart — thank you for reading.
And thank you, God, for the Grace that has carried me every single day since.
— Todd