CNN’s Mary Katherine Ham Tearfully Addresses Her Husband’s Tragic Death

On the latest episode of “Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend,” former Fox News contributor and current CNN political commentator Mary Katherine Ham returned to the podcast to discuss her husband’s tragic death last fall and the aftermath of the loss. Ham was married to White House aide Jake Brewer who was hit by a car during a charity bike race and killed in the accident. At the time, Mary Katherine was 7 months pregnant with the couple’s second child which she eventually named in Jake’s honor – Garnet, after a canyon that the pair once hike together during Ham’s first pregnancy, and J as a middle initial.

On the podcast, Mary Katherine emotionally revealed her thoughts when she first heard of the accident and Brewer’s passing.

“When I heard something had happened, that there was an accident, I was in the driveway of my parents house, and there was a text saying that there had been an accident. I thought – #1 He’s a great cyclist. If anyone can mitigate an accident, it’s Jake …. and even if he can’t mitigate it, he is so healthy that he will give them time to save him. And it turned out that that was not the case.”

Imagining being in Mary Katherine’s shoes in that moment, and it is nothing short of heartbreaking. Based on all of the anecdotes and photos of Mary Katherine and Jake that were circulated after his death, they were a couple very much in love who had a beautiful future together before his life was cut tragically short. Her reaction to the loss and handling one (soon to be two) children on her own is also incredibly inspiring.

“What I said immediately after he died was … that I and my children would not be a sad trombone in everyone’s lives. It would be easy for us to walk into a room and for everybody to go ‘Oh, there’s the widow and her two children. They’ll never know their father.’ It’s sad, it’s really sad. We are not sad. And if we bring that into other people’s lives, if we’re a constant reminder of that, that compounds our sadness… I’m the woman he married and these children are half him, and they are not sad. Their story’s not over … And so I asked for that from family and friends, and I asked for that publicly.”

Returning to the public eye is hard enough after a life-changing loss such as Ham’s. Opening up about that loss is even more difficult, but if it can improve even one person’s experience going through a similarly rough time than it is worth sharing publicly. Opening up about grief is one of the most difficult parts of the grieving process and Ham should be applauded for doing so with such optimism.

(via AlisonRosen.com)

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