After losing both her daughters nearly two years ago in a heartbreaking car crash, Tina Trumble –- whose day job is serving students in the Financial Aid Office –- has written a book, “Everything Beautiful,” to help others heal and raise money for a scholarship in her daughters’ name.
On Aug. 1, 2024, her daughters Shelby, 17, and Hailey, 19, died in a car accident, a sudden end to two promising lives. To add to that grief, her mother passed away five weeks later after a long battle with cancer.
The grieving process, Trumble said, isn’t something that people understand or can easily navigate, whether they are in mourning or just trying to figure out what to say to somebody who is. In writing this book and telling her story, she’s learned how many people are suffering.
“Turning pain into purpose... that's my goal,” Trumble said. “This is a horrible thing. It happens to other people, but just showing people that there is hope and you can get through it – that's really the message I want people to know.”
The book also will allow her daughters’ spirits to live on in another way, as it is funding a scholarship in their name at Hannibal High School, where they both graduated.
“This poignant narrative unfolds as she embarks on a transformative journey, visiting places that hold significance to her family and their shared experiences,” according to the book’s description on Amazon. “Each destination serves as a backdrop for reflection, healing, and the celebration of her daughters' vibrant lives.”
Anybody visiting Trumble’s office in Sheldon Hall will see many pictures of her daughters on the wall, still smiling and exuding radiant personalities.
“I have pictures of my kids all over,” Trumble said. “They are everything that is beautiful and loving and kind in this world.”
Trumble had previously written a series of fiction books, but stopped writing by 2020 due to another tragedy: Her son was badly injured when hit by a drunk driver, which also killed his girlfriend. While her son has been able to come back, the spark to start writing again didn’t return until Trumble found a way to deal with the grief of summer 2024 and perhaps provide an avenue to help others.
‘Light at the end of the tunnel’
For this, her seventh and most personal book, Trumble traveled from Maine to Florida, crossing items off her daughters’ bucket list and visiting places and having experiences they had discussed. In a few twists of fate, she kept meeting others who also were grieving and opened up, showing what she was doing was a worthy project.
“The book is, I hope, something that people who are grieving can use to help guide them, that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Trumble said. “They can experience joy again, try to find beauty in everyday life. That's the spirit of my daughters, that's who they were.”
She also established a website -- lets-be-real.org -- that serves as a connecting point for group discussions on grief three nights a week and offers other resources, services and referral opportunities. She has come to realize that not many support systems exist or are regularly available for grieving people.
“It seems to be helping the people who do come, and I'm constantly getting new people,” Trumble said. “So we're just kind of working through it. I started in February. I really threw it out on Facebook to some of the grieving groups that I belong to, and I said, ‘Hey, I'm going to do this. Is anybody interested?’ And I had over 100 emails in like two hours. I was like, ‘holy cow!’”
Despite regularly working, helping students fund their studies and having books out in the world, healing is an ongoing process and some mornings can still feel daunting to the point that getting out of bed can be a challenge. But the journey for her daughters serves as a reminder to keep going.
“When I have those days when I can't even get out of bed, I've imagined myself back on that mountain in Tennessee, Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee,” Trumble said. “I remember trying to get to the top of this mountain because this is something my daughter wanted.”
Climbing a mountain –- physically and mentally –- is a metaphor she shares with others dealing with grief or other struggles.
“I had to stop, but I didn't quit,” she said of the challenging climb in Tennessee. “And so when I'm struggling to get out of bed and get through the day and do the things that I need to do, I say, It's okay to stop. It's okay to rest, but you can't quit.”
Trumble also has plans to do a similar trip starting in California, where she’s never been before, this summer. “I'm doing 12 national parks and 34 states. So that will hopefully be another book,” she said.
Since Trumble is a modest person who admits to not being much of a self-promoter, not many on campus even know she is an author of seven books, including this one with such a poignant and personal story.
“Most of the people that I work with don't realize that I'm an author,” Trumble admitted. “I'm not good at promoting myself. I don't go around tooting my own horn or blowing my own kazoo.”
To support the scholarship fund and awareness, Trumble has done readings and appearances around the area. When recently doing one in the Hannibal Public Library the family was so familiar with, she sold out of advance copies and 70 more that she has since ordered.
Trumble has committed to two more local book-signings –- May 9 at the New Haven First Congregational Church and June 20 at the Oswego Public Library –- and received additional inquiries.
“Everything Beautiful” also is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers, where it continues to help remember Shelby and Hailey and assist others.
“I am not shy about sharing my girls' story,” Trumble said. “I want people to remember them, to tell everybody about them, because they were so bright and so vibrant and full of life that I can't not talk about them.”