Influencers spouse died 4 months after they became parents (exclusive)

Brielle Persun began on what is called “Bookstagram” 2020. As the name implies, it is the page of Instagram run by Avid readers with lots of recommendations to share, and Persun decided to participate in Rolan after scaling through enough books during the Covid-19 lock.

She opened a second Instagram account to review readings and suggest titles to her followers, and before the Persun knew the word, she had created a real community of other bookstagram users.

With over 17,000 followers, her side @Bookswithbrielle Discusses a variety of genres. But if she had to determine a way to describe her reading habits, she says that she is most drawn to contemporary fiction, especially when she is written by women.

“I love books that make me feel something,” Persun, 36, tells People. “If it will make me cry, I want to read it.”

Shortly after she started at Bookstagram, the Charleston-based content creator Tyler met. A couple of years later they got married and on August 26, 2024, she and Tyler welcomed their first child. They named their son after his mother’s virgin name, Colby.

But her love story turned out not to be something one would find on the pages in a romantic novel. As much as the persian can appreciate “a good romance every now and then”, she says that she never really bought “happily ever after” Plotline.

“I can only read so much before I am,” okay, this is not realistic, “she admits.” People have their own opinions. There are people who read them as: “I want it to end happily, because that’s how I want to be.” I’m just more a realistic girly. ”

Persun’s reality changed at 12:34 on January 10, 2025, when Tyler died of complications of pancreatitis. They had only been married for over a year, with a son who was not even 5 months old at that time, and suddenly her world came crashed.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, convinced on the shoulders of her parents, Tyler’s parents and her circle of constantly supportive friends. Her loved ones helped with everything. They looked at Colby while Persun was busy planning their husband’s funeral. They went her dog. Her friends started a Gofundme page For persian and didn’t even tell her until it raised a decent amount of money.

“A good friend of mine – actually from Bookstagram – came to my house, and she told everyone in our (bookstagram -group chats) was just like,” I hope one day that if anything ever happens to me that I have the friends that Brielle had, “” Persun reminds. “Someone took care of everything I just didn’t have the brain power to handle.”

If you search online for books to read when you mourn, you will find self -help suggestions, reflective memoirs or stories that fight with death and dying. Persun gravitated in the opposite direction. She picked up fantasy books.

“Some things are just too real,” she says. “I needed (be) disassociated, is the best way to say that.”

The third part of Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series, Onyxstormreleased less than two weeks after Tyler’s death. Persun made it to every way that it did not reflect what happened in her world, the real world.

“I was just so grateful that I had that book because I was just like, it’s a” romantas. “So it still has the romantic side of it, but much of it is just as if you are in a completely different world, she explains.” Reading is something I loved and I still want to love it, and I want it to be a form of escapism. ”

In its state of grief, Persun’s perspective was broadened on grief. She understood that there is no need to be something that clouds every quadrant in life.

“If you sit in your grief all day without a stop and that is all you consume, you are paralyzed,” says person. “I don’t know how to do it. Especially when I have to raise a child I can’t.”

She sometimes leans to grief, but she is also aware that people “can be happy and sad at the same time in one day”, even after losing a loved one. She controls that fluctuation by reading by picking up a fantasy book, thriller or cozy mystery.

Of course, when her personal taste shifted, so did Persun’s Instagram content. After building her community from scratch – and knowing that her audience is slamming against women of her age, many of whom have children too – she wanted to be realistic about her grief. She could not only return to social media and continue to recommend books as if nothing happened.

“I felt weird with it. I was like, ‘there must be a way. I also have to be able to show my journey with what happens or otherwise it is only inauthentic to me,'” she remembers. She also understood that some people who “don’t love you to be sad about them”, but she heard from people really wanted to know her story, partly because it echoed their own.

Persun sees himself in a unique “Age of Widowhood”, as in the mid -thirties. She does not think she will probably have another child, because her pregnancy with Colby was “really rough”, and she says she “can’t even get dating right now.”

She realizes that there may be a time when she opens again, and she knows that another child is not completely off the table. But at the moment she is not in that main space.

“It’s just a really strange and lonely place to be,” shares persu. “The meadows who are stated about their grief-who do a lot of self-help or to write books or such things-are either young enough to marry again, have children with their new partner and have this large mixed family, or there are widows who (lost) their spouse in 30-plus years. Their children are older, some of them have even grandchildren.” ”

She adds, “I was just kind of flounder for … there is no one who felt very related. That’s where I was like,” I think I have to start to be. “Because maybe they are out there, and they just don’t know what to do either.”

Sharing openly on its book page opened the door for these people to rely on persu. She has received messages from women who share stories about losing their partners after a year of marriage or losing them during pregnancy.

It is inspired persian to create a balance in her content between being honest and pronounced about grief “without being super depressing.” After all, she knows the importance of using books as a means for escapism.

Influencer does not close for the possibility of wanting to read into their grief one day. She has been recommended books that Option B. By Sheryl Sandberg with a provision: For “When you’re ready,” her friends said.

This is where Persun’s perspective becomes so gripping. She not only cures a list of books based on what she knows about grief. She consciously notes what helped – and continues to help – her through every step of sad Tyler.

“I think of the people who go through what I went through, especially the week after that,” Persun tells people about her recommendation. “I don’t tailor it for them; I’m Considering them.”