Hord remarried last year and she shared an expression she loves from her husband, Axel Johnson, which is that “‘Good things happen for a reason'”—as opposed to the old “everything happens for a reason,” which she finds suspect.
But she firmly believes that when life comes calling with its challenges, nothing more is required than what’s already within us.
“I don’t believe there’s a grief index,” Hord said. “You know, it’s easy to look at me and say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that.’ But we all have things in our lives that we struggle with that cause us to have to find the guts to say, ‘Yet in spite of that, I’m going to continue.'”
Of course, she also said of becoming a source of strength for others, “I did not choose this. What happened was, I had people write me letters and say, ‘Michelle, I had not prayed in years until I saw you speak at Gabrielle’s funeral.’ ‘Michelle, I watched you go to work every day and it’s inspiring to me.’ And I realized the holes in my heart were letting light of hope come through for other people. So this wasn’t really about me, it was about honoring her spirit and hopefully giving other people hope.”
