Warriors, rest assured...Everything is going to be alright!!!
Warriors, I'm tougher than I look. I appreciate so many of you calling me sweet and with people I love I genuinely am...but you cross my family, friends, loved ones (that includes you Warriors) and watch out....(hit warrior music) I'll find you and in my way, make you pay. I could hear some of your wheels turning in those Warrior brains of yours...can Betty Crocker, Dana Warrior, really put on the metaphorical paint and move us forward? The answer....
um, yes I can
...and don't call me Betty Crocker...I'm a tough cookie and I bake from scratch. Here's the thing. I'm a kind person but I'm anything but vanilla. Think rainbow sherbet with sprinkles and gummy worms wound throughout! My husband chose me for a reason and one of them was I could hold my own. I held my my own while he was alive and I've held it since he died. I'm currently writing a book describing what the first year and a half alone is like, and friends...you better be a damn warrior to face widowhood. The cruelty and predatory behavior of some is staggering. The stories I'll tell of the boots to the gut I've endured will leave you flat on the mat and reaching for the ropes. Luckily I have had all of you, a close knit group of friends, new allies and treasured folks at WWE, my family and my girls to see me through. Still, loss and grieving is not for the weak, so although I might have been tough before I am now the freaking terminator in heels. Being tough though isn't the same as it was when at the end of the day there was still a soft place to fall. Mattie and I were pulling into our driveway, a song blaring through our speakers and the lyric that made me press the brakes too hard and stop said, .."everything is gonna be alright". Mattie looked over at me to see what had caused the sudden halt and measuring my expression turned the music off. Her soft little face was so concerned, her unnaturally beautiful hand grabbed mine as her voice filled the car with a chorus of what's wrong? I never burden the girls with adult worries but before I could compose myself I said,"I just realized what I truly miss most, daddy telling me everything would be alright and my truly believing him.".
I gathered myself after that and slapped on a smile. I apologized for my uncharacteristic outburst and rough braking but when I was finally alone I sat with what it was to lose my "everything is going to be alright". I had the realization that now I was other people's ultimate assurance. It was a lonesome reckoning I no longer had such an outside assurance to blanket me.
This all happened right before I had to do media interviews for the release of the book, as well as the book signing and I was very nervous. I had never been a guest on a podcast nor had I spoken with print media outlets and I was scared. I have one goal always and that is to make Warrior proud and keep his brand of magic intact for you Warriors and those Warriors still to come. I told a friend how sad I felt I no longer had an "everything will be alright" and their response was "nobody can ever really say that for anybody else anyway". I conceded that point in the conversation but thought about how sad it was to think that way. It repackaged my sadness into gratitude because unlike my friend who had never had that hug and belief in words your beloved spoke, I had! I had twenty years of Warrior infusing me with not only everything is going to be alright but everything is going to be F'ing AWESOME!!! (Lol his cursing sometimes sneaks in ;)
The print media went well, Chris Jericho was a dream interview, such fun and informative for you Warriors, such a gift for me to share funny stories of our lives and for me to just be me, nothing more. Then the book signing which I expressed was like the service I could never have for Warrior, it was instead a celebration of his life with so many of you. It was all beyond alright...it was truly ULTIMATE!
SummerSlam was wonderful and I had the chance to see super stars you might not know by name but are very dear to me and true stars at WWE. My friend Karra who works at headquarters and who loaned me her DIAMOND RING at Warrior's HOF induction (the subject of a future blog!) and Vic, the DVD producer and one of my dearest friends, were my most anticipated faces to see. Both of whom were at the book signing and integral parts of it being a success.
After the excitement of NXT, SummerSlam, and Monday Night Raw I also got a quiet moment with Steph and Paul, two people I count as treasured friends. These two are a powerhouse couple who care about their people. WWE is a company and nobody should forget that but it is important too to remember it started as a family business. No matter how big WWE has grown there remains heart and they circle the wagons when one amongst them falls. At the end of our meeting we all stood, Stephanie gave me a squeeze that outclassed any ordinary hug...and do you wanna know what she said?...
"Everything is going to be alright, Dana"....
...and for the first time since my husband died I believed it would with all my heart.
I believe that everything is going to be alright for anybody who calls themselves a warrior... Always
xo Dana
