Sandra Rodriguez Bicknell

Becoming a grandmother has been one of the most unexpected and profound experiences of my life.

I’ve found myself thinking about it a lot lately, trying to understand why the love feels so different. So much deeper than I ever imagined.

Is it simply because she is the child of my child?

Or is it something more?

Sometimes I wonder if it’s a soul connection. A love that existed long before we ever met. It feels almost divine, as if she was sent into my life with a purpose far greater than I can understand.

Almost like a little messenger from the future, arriving exactly when my soul needed her most… awakening parts of my heart I didn’t even know were waiting to be found.

People always told me, “The best part of being a grandparent is that you get to hand them back to their parents.”

Maybe one day I’ll understand what they mean.

But if I’m honest… I haven’t felt that.

Instead, I find myself wanting more time, more cuddles, more laughter, more memories. Not because I want to take her parents’ place, but because loving her has become one of the greatest privileges of my life.

She hasn’t just made me a grandmother.

She’s reminded me that the heart never reaches its limit. It simply keeps expanding, making room for a love you never knew was possible.

And that feels like one of God’s most beautiful gifts.

If you’re a grandparent, did it surprise you too? Did you discover a love that felt unlike anything you had experienced before? I’d love to hear your story.

I didn’t want to start over. I had already done it once.

But Chapter One isn’t just about the storm I was standing in. It’s about what started there. The parts of me that had to fall apart before something new could take shape.

That’s the part of my story most people don’t see in the highlight reel. Not the ending. The beginning that came disguised as a breakdown.

If this speaks to you, you can read it in full through the link in my bio.

This is what happens when someone finally says yes to their story.

Not yes to perfection. Not a yes to having it all figured out. Just yes to beginning, and trusting that the process will meet them there.

Olivia came into this project with a story inside her. She left with clarity, connection, and something she did not expect: healing through the act of writing itself.

That is what this work does. It doesn’t just produce a book. It produces a version of you that finally knows what you have been carrying, and what it means.

If you have been sitting on a yes that keeps getting postponed, this is the reminder you needed.

Looking at this photo, you’d probably see a happy mom with her two beautiful children.

I see a woman who had left everything familiar behind to build a life in a foreign country. My family was thousands of miles away, and these two little faces were my entire world.

They were my world then, and they still are.

Every decision I made was for them. All I wanted was for them to have everything they needed and a childhood that felt safe, happy, and as normal as possible.

What you can’t see is how alone I felt.

Not because I was physically alone; I wasn’t. But there is a loneliness that comes from having no family nearby and quietly realizing that the life you’ve built isn’t entirely yours to control.

My intuition knew.

There were signs.
There were moments.
There were truths I wasn’t ready to face.

I explained things away.
I accepted things I shouldn’t have.
I kept believing tomorrow would be different.

I lied to myself because the truth felt too painful to face.

She didn’t know she’d have to start over.

More than once.

She didn’t know that heartbreak would become one of her greatest teachers.

She didn’t know she’d write a book.

She didn’t know that the story she once wanted to hide would become the very reason women trusted her with theirs.

Or that she’d spend her life helping others find the courage to tell their own stories.

If you’re in a chapter that doesn’t make sense yet, don’t wait until you know how it ends before you begin telling it.

And if I could whisper one thing to the woman in this photograph, it would be this: The truth you are so afraid of today will one day become the very thing that sets you free. ❤️

I get asked this all the time: how do you decide what to include about the people in your life?

The truth is, it was never about deciding what to expose. It was about deciding what actually belonged to my story. There’s a difference. Your mother, your ex, your old business partner. They lived through their own version of events.

You’re not writing theirs. You’re writing yours.

That’s the part people get stuck on. They think telling their truth means telling everything. It doesn’t.

You get to choose the moments that shaped you and leave the rest where it belongs. If you’ve been holding back a chapter because someone else is in it, this is your permission slip.

Comment READY if you’re ready to write it.

AuthorIdentity MemoirWriting