Nora McInerny is an American author. She writes about dealing with grief and loss, drawing on her personal experience of miscarrying a child and losing both her father and husband to cancer within several weeks in 2014.
Early life and education
Nora McInerny is from Minneapolis. She comes from an Irish Catholic family and attended high school at DeLaSalle High School, graduating in 2001. She attended college at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating in 2005.
Works
McInerny wrote about her husband's illness, subsequent death, and her feelings of grief on her blog "My Husband's Tumor", which had 200,000 followers. In 2016, McInerny published a memoir entitled It's Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too). In 2019, McInerny's book No Happy Endings was released. A third book, Hot Young Widows Club, was also published in 2019. Bad Vibes Only (2022) addressed toxic positivity.
She is also the host of a podcast called "Terrible, Thanks for Asking". In 2018, McInerny gave a talk about grief at TEDWomen.
Nonprofit and support group
In 2015, McInerny founded the nonprofit "Still Kickin", which got its name from a phrase on one of her late husband's t-shirts. Each month the nonprofit designates a "Still Kickin Hero", who then receives the proceeds from the sales of branded merchandise. Benefits of the nonprofit include those struggling with illness, death, or other challenges.
McInerny created the Facebook grief support group called the "Hot Young Widows Club". The group has hundreds of members, approximately 6% of whom are men.
Personal life
In 2010, McInerny began dating Aaron Purmort. While they were dating, Purmort was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. McInerny and Purmort became engaged at the hospital the night he was diagnosed. They were married and had a son together in 2013. In 2014, McInerny experienced a miscarriage shortly before the death of her father. Purmort died in November 2014 from his cancer. Before his death, McInerny and Purmort were able to co-write his obituary, which was covered by news outlets due to its humor.
In 2017, McInerny married Matthew Hart. Together, they have one son. They live together with their son and their three children from previous marriages.
References
- McInerny Purmort, Nora (26 January 2016). "Why I tell everyone to leave Minneapolis". Star Tribune. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- Terhark, Chuck (18 March 2016). "Still Kickin". Mpls St Paul. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- "Alumni Corner". April 2016 Islander E-News. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- Irwin Zimmerman, Jule (15 April 2015). "MyHusbandsTumor.Com: Love Goes Viral". Xavier Magazine. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- Grossman, Mary Ann (18 May 2016). "With first book, Nora Purmort writes love letter to late husband". Twin Cities. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ Rhodes, Giulia (4 June 2016). "We crammed 30 years into four when the love of my life got a brain tumour". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- Ruiz, Michelle (26 March 2019). "In No Happy Endings, Nora McInerny Is in Love With Both of Her Husbands". Vogue. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- Heing, Bridey (May 14, 2019). "If Grief Makes You Uncomfortable, You Need to Read The Hot Young Widows Club". Paste. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ""Bad Vibes Only" author examines our oppressively optimistic culture". Arizona State University. Arizona PBS. February 2, 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
- Shapiro, Ari (2 March 2017). "How Are You? On This Podcast, The Answer Is: 'Terrible, Thanks For Asking'". NPR. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- McInerny, Nora (9 April 2019), We don't "move on" from grief. We move forward with it, retrieved 2020-10-21
- Peloquin, Jahna (9 January 2018). "Still Kickin Kicks Off a Mindful, Altruistic New Year". Minnesota Monthly. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ Rock, Lucy (24 February 2018). "The Hot Young Widows Club is out to change the way we grieve". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- Mazza, Ed (2 December 2014). "Aaron Joseph Purmort, Spider-Man, Dead At 35". HuffPost. Retrieved 1 April 2019.