Belle Burden

I'm not sure I would have known what to do with it.

I'm not sure I would have... But the word had spread, right?

Oh, everyone was talking about it.

And some people are uncomfortable with it.

I had a couple of men that I knew well turn away from me and walk away from me without saying hello.

And on the other hand, some people really move towards me.

And it's taught me a lot about how to respond to someone who's going through anything, anything that's a sudden change or a difficult thing.

I had people stop me on the street and say, I'm so sorry you're going through this.

Or another woman who grabbed me by the shoulders and said, I'm going to take care of you.

And it was such a beautiful thing.

It really lifted me up.

But there were harder reactions, too.

And I think for all those people, people bring their own family histories to these things.

And their reaction is definitely influenced by that.

When the article first came out, tell us about the reaction.

I was on Martha's Vineyard.

It came out on June 30th, 2023.

And I was so excited because I had wanted to be a writer when I was a teenager.

And when I started trying to write down exactly what happened, I got very interested in the art of it again.

And when it was picked, I just thought, oh, my God, this is incredible.