Just a few months ago, my entire world collapsed.

My husband had a sudden heart attack only blocks away from where we lived. There was no warning, no time to prepare. I was called in to identify his body—and then, just like that, I was back outside on 7th Avenue, completely alone, holding the weight of something I didn’t know how to carry.

In the days that followed, my friends were kind and supportive. They brought meals, sat with me, called to check in. But as life moved on for them, I stayed frozen in that moment. I don’t have children. I’m not a workaholic. I didn’t have anything to throw myself into. There was just this crushing loneliness—quiet, constant, and suffocating.

I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know what to do with myself.

One day, I started looking up dogs that were good for people struggling with grief and depression. Over and over again, the answer came back: poodles. Something about their intelligence, their emotional intuition, their loyalty.

So I went to a local rescue fair, hoping maybe I’d meet one. But when I got there, all the poodles had already been adopted.

Still, I walked around—just in case.

And then I saw her.

She was in the very back. An older dog, thin to the point of being skeletal. Shivering, clearly terrified, mucus dripping from her eyes. No one else even looked at her. But when I saw her, I felt something shift. She looked so broken, so lost, so fragile.

She looked like me.

I took her home and named her Grace—because it felt like a gift my husband had sent, just when I needed it most.

Grace is my very first dog. I didn’t know what to expect. But she has been nothing short of a miracle. She stays close to me always. She sleeps curled against me. She’s gained back her weight, and she even comes with me to therapy. She brings light to my days, warmth to my home, and a steady presence to a life that once felt empty.

We’re healing together—two souls that were once trembling and afraid, slowly learning to feel safe again.

Grace didn’t just save me. She became the grace I never knew I needed.