In this episode, I talk with Casey Hudgens. She is the single mom of two boys who works full-time at a funeral home. She talks about her divorce, dealing with severe allergies with one of her sons and dating.*

-Please note: there are two F bombs dropped in this episode.-

She grew up with one older sister. They were both very active in sports. Her sister later died, at only 24 years old, just five days after giving birth to her second child.

On October 2, 2017, Casey had her defining moment. She decided she’d had enough in her marriage and she was going to file for divorce. Anxiety, depression, financial issues and anger problem all led to that point. There was a lot of verbal and emotional abuse going on. That morning, something happened while getting the kids ready for school. Casey didn’t want to argue in front of her friends, so she said they could talk about it later – when it was just the two of them. Her husband (at the time), began pushing her into the bedroom and held her down on the bed. He told her he no longer wanted her to be his wife and to get the f*ck out. Then he spit in her face. “Not a problem.” She packed  her and the kid’s things up and moved back home to Houston – five hours away.

We talk about how hard it is to be cheated on and how it affects our self-esteem and self-worth. All the doubts start creepin’ in.

Casey opened up about what it’s like for her to date. She says how hard it is to find someone that respects her as a mom first. She shares about the hard moment that she realized she was still broken. She was dragging others down because she wasn’t okay herself.

I noticed on her Instagram that she had some allergy testing done on one of her sons, so I asked her what that was all about. Unfortunately, he’s allergic to many things, so things that he can do and eat are limited. Casey shared about ways they work around this and still have a good time!

Later in the episode, Casey tells about how her sister passed – stage 5 primary pulmonary hypertension. Her sister didn’t even know she was sick. For precautionary measures, Casey saw a cardiologist afterward. Luckily she was fine. However, when taking her son in for a doctors appointment, she learned that he has a heart murmur.
Here are some warning signs of pulmonary hypertension.

We talked about the brutal honesty of kids and she shared a good story about her son and a man with only one leg. We also talked about the lovely conversations you have as a boy mom. 😉 This part will make you laugh.

Listen to the episode for all of the details.

*Please note: this is the guest’s story. Their story is how they perceive it. It is not my judgement or responsibility to determine whether or not this story and the things said are true. Please be open minded when listening to/reading these stories.

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Some key takeaways from Casey’s episode:
-If you’re getting out of a bad situation, do not ever be by yourself. When she was packing up, she had a friend come over so she wasn’t alone.
-Have a safe word with your parents or someone you can trust. Text them or call them and say the word when you are in an emergency-type of situation. This will alert them that something is wrong and you need help NOW!
-When you get divorced from someone and kids are involved, it’s important to remember that one parent is still the mom and the other is still the dad. That won’t change. So *try* to get along.
-You MUST love yourself  and be able to take care of yourself before you can expect to find someone else to come in and love you.
-Forgive people for YOU. So you don’t have to carry the burden anymore.
-I love Casey’s quick answers at the end where she talks about what she loves about herself and how she proud of herself. They were instant answers. This is not her bragging. This is her knowing her worth and being proud of it.
-YOU ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE. YOUR HAPPINESS DEPENDS ON YOU!

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LINKS:
Casey’s favorite book: Love Comes Softly
The song always in Casey’s head: Texas Angel by Honeybrowne and Naked by Ella Mai (You can hear both of these on the Hard Knocks Podcast – Guest List on Spotify.)
Casey’s Instagram

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