A Canadian woman has become an inspiration on TikTok after she documented her solo honeymoon following the sudden death of her fiancé a month before their wedding.
Laura Murphy’s life was devastated when her partner Devon O’Grady, 31, died of a heart attack in May.
She immediately received a lot of support from friends and family, but she also felt alone in her grief.
She was tired of being at home and felt ‘guilty’ for not living her life. She decided to continue the honeymoon they had booked in England, ‘to see if life was still worth living’.
What started as a way to process her grief and encourage her to get out there every day, became an overnight sensation as other widows and people affected by her situation began to realize it too.
Laura Murphy has become an internet star after documenting her solo honeymoon following the sudden death of her fiancé Devon O’Grady a month before their wedding
“It’s very lonely and isolating because I didn’t know anyone my age who had lost a partner,” she told The Washington Post. “I had to find people who could relate because I wanted to know how to move forward.”
‘I also felt like I had to remove myself from my hometown and our home. I just sat there for months and didn’t know what to do with myself.
Her report is filled with images of her travels through London and, most recently, France.
But beyond her solo dinners and solo concerts, Murphy also includes moments of her raw, unfiltered grief. She admits there are times when she’d rather curl up in bed or just have a “good cry.”
Her decision to document her experiences came as a surprise to those who know her, but especially to Murphy, who describes herself as a “private person.”
“It’s totally unusual for me to travel alone, and it’s even more unusual to document it for the world,” she said.
Before his death, she and O’Grady lived together their entire lives in Newfoundland with their Bernedoodles Leni and Chewy.
The couple met at work after Murphy, a lawyer, applied for a position but got stuck in the stairwell on the way to meet her boss.
Murphy’s fiancée died in May after a heart attack
O’Grady came to her aid when he heard ‘banging’ on the other side of a door and the two became friends and developed into a romance.
He died in May in the office across from Murphy’s, a fact that still haunts her.
In a video, Murphy describes being “triggered” by the sound of an ambulance siren.
Her decision to travel was born out of the belief that her fiancé wants her to travel and enjoy life, even though she just wants to be with him, she explains in an excerpt.
Murphy became motivated to travel after meeting and being inspired by other young widows in similar circumstances.
But it hasn’t been without its challenges. In a TikTok, Murphy explains how she met her best friend and bridesmaid and her fiancé in Nice, France, not long after she and O’Grady had been out with the couple.
“The similarities between that trip and this one were not lost on me, so it was very difficult,” Murphy admitted.
But since Murphy wrote about her experiences, she has found a huge online community to support her journey.
“I’m honestly overwhelmed with all the love and I wish I could reply to everyone and hang out with y’all,” she said through tears in a TikTok post discussing her newfound fame.
“I remember saying to my dad, ‘I need someone who’s been through this.’ I needed proof that I could survive this.”