Welcome to Hope in the Morning. turning tragedies and tears into testimonies of hope. If your fairy tale suddenly turned into a tragedy, What would the story of your faith tell? Brighton Hart joins me today to share her testimony of trusting God through an unimaginable sorrow. Brighton, thank you for joining me today.
Yeah, of course. Thank you for asking me. Brighton's been a friend that I've had for probably 15 years now, maybe longer than that. More than that, I think, yeah. Yeah, and we've sung in choirs together and We used to we went to the same university out in California.
And um You know, I got married and moved out here to North Carolina, and you stayed in California. And that is where you met your sweet Adam. Can you tell us about that a little bit? Yeah, so back in 2015, I had been trying doing online dating at one point and then just was kind of not feeling it. But then my mom had kind of encouraged me, just try like one more time.
And so I tried one more time, and that day actually I matched with Adam. And he contacted me first. And he was just really sweet and like immediately kind of asked all the questions that I wanted to be asked. And he answered all of my hard questions. And from there, it was pretty quick.
We spoke on the phone. And this was in July of 2025. And by September of 2025, I'm sorry, not 2025, 2015, by September, we were meeting in person. We met at Disneyland, actually, for the first time. He flew from Ohio to California, and that's where we met.
And he asked me to. Be his girlfriend. And it was just really, really sweet. He is, or was just the sweetest, sweetest man.
So. Selfless. The one thing I could say about him was he would drop anything for anybody if they needed something. I mean, just the sheer fact that, you know, February of 2016, he packed up his little tiny Camry and moved out to California. He drove, took him three days, and he just slept in his car and moved to Bakersfield, California to be with me so that we could get married.
So we got engaged in March of 2016 and we were. We quickly engaged in the sense of we didn't weren't engaged for very long. And then we got married in August of 2016. And five weeks later is when he was in his accident. He was driving home from work.
And well, at 1 a.m. he had a midnight shift.
So like he would, or I guess it's called a Graveyard shift. Yeah. And so he would work from about 5 p.m. until about 1 a.m. And When like 1:30 hit and he wasn't home, I kind of didn't really know what was going on.
And so I, um, Checked my phone. I called him and it went straight to voicemail. And I would just. Yeah, was not really sure what was going on.
So then I talked to my mom and was like, Adam's not home and I don't know where he is. And she said, well, wait like half an hour more, you know, because at that point I already wanted to go out and like look for him, go to his work. Maybe his car broke down and his phone died. That's happened before. I'd always scold him, keep your charger with you.
But I didn't wait the first half hour, maybe waited 10 minutes before I finally said, nope. And I got in my car and I went to go look for him. And didn't it? Find him. He was not at his work.
They said he had left like normal. And I did come upon an accident, but there was a lot of like police activity and everything. And I thought it was like I saw there was like a they had blocked it off.
So I turned around and I was like, well, that's not Adam. Like it didn't even cross my mind that that was him. Because I thought, well, he's just something happened. He got lost. His car broke down.
Like that, I don't know if the Lord was protecting me at the time. But that wasn't even crossed my mind. I went home, and that was when it was on the news that there had been a car crash. And my boss, actually, at the time, was the one who saw the car and recognized that it was Adams. And she is who, it was very like through the grapevine situation where someone, she told someone, and then they told my mom, and then my mom told my sister.
And then finally, someone called me and was like, Hey, I think that was Adam in the accident. And I was like, are you sure? Like, are you sure that's his car? He was a white Camry. Like, there's so many of those cars.
What time was that? By the time it got back to you, that they thought it was Adam's car. It was about five, six, six a.m. ish, many hours. It had been.
I was driving around looking for him. And then I finally came home, called police stations, called hospitals, called, they just said they called everywhere. They was like, he might have been arrested even. Like, you know, there's just little things that you don't think of. And so I called everywhere I could think of.
They had no John Does to. To their knowledge, I guess they did end up having a John Doe, but there's a lot of mix-ups, and I don't know if that was just God's sovereignty of protecting me and finding out the way that I did.
So then I got a call from one of my elders at my church, and he said, We found, I found Adam, and he was in a car accident, and he's in ICU at the hospital. You need to come. You need to come quickly. He's in the ICU. And so that's all he had told me.
And so I knew I had to get there. Yeah. So I, um, Drove as quickly as I could. My sister called me and she actually said, You know, please wait for me. Please wait for me.
Come get me. And I was like, No, I want to go. Because at that point, Jillian already knew that my sister knew that he was gone.
So everybody knew that he was gone, but me at this point, because they had all talked about it, but they didn't want me knowing until I got there because I was driving and they wanted me not to be alone. And so I drove, but was feeling like really, really sick.
So I paused and had to get sick and then kept driving. And at this point, I was just asking the Lord at that point, begging him, please just let him be alive, but let him like, I don't, if he's paralyzed, that's okay. Like, I'll. I'll take care of him, I'll do whatever it takes. Um, just let him be alive.
So we got there sorry.
Okay. And, um I ran up and I saw my um the elder Grant, who he's an amazing, compassionate man. I'm so thankful for him, and he was there. And he was standing there with like a bag of clothes. And in my head, that was kind of like the Lord preparing me, I think, because I had a little bit of like.
Why does he have a bag of stuff? And, you know, that was like, maybe it was just. Adam had extra things, but I knew Adam had nothing in his car with him.
So I went up and that was when he said, I'm so sorry. But, you know, I saw Adam. He's he's gone. I'm he's gone right and and I Don't remember much after that for a little bit. Um I do remember Praying and asking him to pray because I didn't know what else to do but pray.
And I'm so thankful that I thought of that because I don't know what else I would have thought of.
So we went in and thankfully the hospital has like a grieving like area, so they took us to that area. Because at the time I thought I wanted to see him and I wasn't sure, but they had already, I guess, taken him back to. to um the the morgue area.
So like they I couldn't see him.
So I ended up I actually did not get to see him that day, but From people from church came and my family came to the hospital. Yeah. and just grieved with me and um and, you know, there was a lot of things that happened that day and then went home and it was just kind of crazy to, like, come home and know that, like, he wasn't coming back and I just had this bag of hi of his stuff and um You know, from there, then having to plan the funeral and do all of those things. And it was just so fast. You know, everything happened so quickly.
And you just go from thinking, you know, I'm going to spend my life with this man who's just everything I've ever hoped of and dreamed of. And he was just the sweetest, sweetest man, and so selfless and putting me first constantly and wanting to put me first almost honestly, sometimes to a fault. But yeah, it was an incredible thing. And then just from there, learning to live without him. Yeah.
So. What what did that look like in You know, the weeks to follow, what did people do that mattered to you, that ministered to you? You know, there people showed up in so many different ways, and there were so many ways that even I at the time was like, oh, I didn't even think of that. Like, that was so thoughtful. Even things like, you know, of course, there were meals that were so helpful for my family.
And my sister. I remember at the time she said, I don't know what else to do, so I'm going to do this. And she just came over and cleaned. She just cleaned the house from top to bottom. And it was her way of showing love.
And I was just so thankful for that because I had no concept of like, let me clean the house and keep it nice. Like, you know. And she, I didn't really want to eat at the time. My appetite was really low. And so one of the things that she would do was just bring me my favorite things.
You know, like people were bringing meals, but I didn't really eat the meals too much. My parents ate more of those. And it was more. She would come and she'd bring me my favorite Jampa juice. And she'd be like, You like that?
I'll bring that. And those little things. And then, as far as friends, just sometimes just showing up and being there for me, calling me, being available in the middle of the night. I struggled for months afterwards with insomnia. And having one of the elders at our church be willing to.
Pick up the phone if I needed to call, or having friends be able to do that, be there for me in those moments when nobody else really could be there for me, you know? And then just small little things actually. One thing that was so helpful was when a friend who actually she has gone on to be with the Lord as well from she died of uh cancer. And she sent me these little cards that just had scriptures on them. It just was just this tiny little thing.
I still keep it with me. And she said, you could keep this in your purse. And it just was on like a little three ring binder. And it just, they were laminated. And they were, she printed them on this beautiful paper.
But they were just scriptures to remember. She's like, I know you said you struggle even like sometimes driving alone, like 45 minutes in the car to places is really hard for you because your mind just starts going, you know, places and you, it's really hard. She's like, memorize these scriptures, think on them. And so just things like that and being pointed to Christ and just those little encouraging ways when like people even wouldn't realize that I'd be having a really bad day and someone would reach out. And I knew that that was the Holy Spirit prompting those people to reach out to me.
So to know that I wasn't alone, to know that I wasn't having to walk this journey alone. And I did have that encouragement. Yeah. So were there things that people did or said to you that you found hurtful in that time? Yes.
Some well meaning, some I just don't think it even crossed their mind.
Some things that were hurtful were when I was getting, there was the kind of the comparison and I, you know, oh, you know, that's awful. My husband was gone for four weeks, you know, on a business trip. And I totally understand how hard that was. And I was like, that's not the same thing. Not at all.
But at the same time, I tried really hard to understand that they were coming from a place of trying to relate. to me because I think a lot of the time because I was young and because that just doesn't happen that often they didn't know how to relate to me because they that's never even crossed their mind that someone that young would lose their source I was 27.
Okay, very young. Yeah. So I think that was a lot of it. It was just they didn't know how to relate to me.
So they were trying to come up with some way in their mind. And then one of the things I think that was hurtful was really soon after Adam died, I would get questions like, well, I really hope you get married again. And again, well, meaning, of course, I am married again, and I'm so thankful for that and that the Lord brought that into my life. But in those really early days and months, for some people for years, they're not thinking that way. And until they tell you that they're ready to do that and pursue that, they don't, you know, don't push that.
I think one thing I was really thankful for is my mom never pushed that. She knew that that was a sensitive subject for me. And it wasn't until I came to her and I said, you know, maybe I do want to start dating again. Maybe I do want to try, you know, that. I don't want to be alone forever.
I really want to be a mother and I want to be a wife. And, you know, so having people come along me who are willing to wait and sit with me in the waiting, I think that was really impactful to me because sometimes people wanted to rush my grief. I think they would say things like, you're young, you're young. And I'm like, what does that have to do with grieving? You still loss is still a loss.
I understand that, yes, I have a lot of life to live, but you know, it's okay to wait. And sometimes God wants us to wait, you know, and just be still.
So I think that it would be. helpful to not push people too quickly until they're ready to do those things. When we come back, we're going to talk about how God worked in Brighton's life during that season of waiting. And again, just how she grew in her faith as she trusted the Lord with really her fairy tale. You know, you're Prince Charming.
And so join us again in just a moment on Hope in the Morning. As a grief counselor with years of experience, I can testify that Hope in the Morning is one of the best resources out there. Out of all the grief books I've purchased and that others gave me, This is the work that has helped me the most. These stories don't showcase the individuals as heroes who battled and conquered the worst. The stories of Hope in the Morning provide a marvelous perspective, allowing the listener to focus on Christ rather than self.
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So, joining me again today is Brighton Hart, and she's sharing her testimony of finding her Prince Charming and him going to be with the Lord just five weeks after their marriage. Brighton, shortly after Adam died, you started a blog and you talked about very very openly about all of your struggles as a very young widow. What what did that do for For you, how was that a comfort to you to write that? Yeah, I think sometimes it honestly was like a diary for me because I wasn't really big into journaling or anything like that. Actually, one of the things that was so sweet, I had like hundreds of journals that people gave to me, which I was so thankful for after Adam died.
And I actually still use them to this day, and it's actually really special to like bring them up and see them and use them. But in that way, I wasn't really into handwriting those things. But I thought, you know, I love, I type really fast and I needed to get it out somehow.
So I just was writing it. And then it was, I had lunch with a friend and she encouraged me to put it in a blog. She was like, you should let other people know how you're hurting. And maybe that could help somebody. Even the hurtful things, like I brought up things like, don't talk about getting married yet, things like that.
Or say things like, you know, oh, it's been six months. You need to start moving on, things like that. And so starting that blog was just helpful and therapeutic for myself, but also I did want to encourage other people. People just to see that you know grief can look different. Depending on who you are, everyone grieves differently.
And like, the way I grieve isn't going to be the way somebody else grieves. And even now, looking back, it's almost been 10 years. I don't know if I would grieve the same way that I grieved then. It changes. And so having that blog was really helpful in that time of life for me and really helped, honestly, move me through some of that grief and those stages of grief.
My pastor at the time talked about how it's not just this, you know, static thing that goes along. It's really, really good and then it can kind of go bad. And then it gets to it. And so, you know, as long as the graph is going steadily up, you know, and as a Christian and you're seeing that hope, it's okay that you're going to have those moments. And even now, it has been so long.
And just because I have... You know, remarried, and I'm so thankful for that, and all the blessings the Lord has given to me. Just to know that you know there it's still there. I'm always going to have an atom-shaped hole in my heart. It's going to look different as the years pass and it might scar more, but it's still going to be there.
Yeah. And that's never going to change. I'm never going to not. Have have him in my life. He's never gonna not be a part of who who I am and who I am in Christ.
My life of of in Christ, my spiritual life would not be what it is today if that hadn't happened to me, if I had never met him.
So do you find that now you said it's been about ten years, do you find that people When they want to talk about Adam with you, is that something that you welcome? Yeah, you know, I always welcome talking about him. I never didn't want to not talk about him. I think sometimes it was hard to talk about the accident, and then that's gotten easier over the years to talk about, although it's still emotional, as you saw. Absolutely.
I love talking about him because he was so special. And even just he had an accent because he was from Ohio and he didn't think he had an accent. And that was the funniest part: he's like, I don't have an accent. And the way he would do it was just hilarious. And just things he would say, like, actually, the other day I saw on TV like a tow motor.
Like the competition with the tractor pulling. He loved tractor pulling. And so, like, I watched just like 10 minutes of it because when we first started dating, he watched it all the time. And I was like, What is this? And, like, I did not want to watch it.
But now, looking back, it just gives me such fun memories. And he was such like a country boy like that. And just, um, Yeah, I just loved his laugh. He had the best laugh and that is something that people say all the time too, like, Oh, Adam's laugh. I'm like, I know, he had the best laugh and um, he was just goofy and silly, but also just really, really sweet and um I think One of the things that I try and I hold close to my heart is that he said to me that, you know, this is what he's always wanted.
Like it was his fairy tale, too. It was what he always wanted. He wanted to get married and have a family. And, you know, some of that didn't get to happen for him, but I'm just so thankful that he did get to get married before he went to heaven and that he did get to experience that kind of love before he got to go and have eternity with Christ. One of the neat things about your story, if you're willing to share, is the fact that you did go on to get remarried.
I did. And your first child is a little boy. Yes.
Can you tell us something special about that little boy's birthday? Yeah, so when we got pregnant, I was so, so excited, and I was going to be a mom. That's what I've always wanted since I was a child. And we found out his due date was going to be October 6th. And that's right around Adam's birthday.
His birthday is October 2nd.
Well, the Lord had other plans for Weston. He was born on Adam's birthday, and his name, we had planned it all from the beginning. His name is Weston Adam. Because in Adam's family, it was a family tradition that the firstborn male always has the middle name, first, the first name as his father's middle name. Yeah, that's confusing.
Yeah. So I wanted to keep that tradition no matter if I was married to Adam or not. And so when I got married to Wade, who is now my sweet husband, he was like, that's awesome. Awesome, let's do it. And so just to be able to honor him that way.
And even now, you know, Weston will say, Where's my middle name from again? You know, he's only five. And so we remind him, and he has, we have pictures in our home of Adam, and just the ways that we can. Honor his memory, and you know, they're still little, so the concept of that, like we have told them that I was married before, but They don't really quite understand that yet, but I think if we just talk about it now, it'll just be kind of something natural that kind of comes up as they age and they do understand marriage and more of what that means. But um they just know he was a really special person and that we the reason why we named him that was because you know he we wanted to honor who Adam was and how God used him in our lives and that you know Wesson wouldn't be here.
If Adam hadn't gone. And so I think about those things, you know, that 'Cause, you know, often you think about your future and you think, you know, what would it be like to have children with him and everything, but that wasn't that was never in, you know, the cards for Adam and I. We were never meant to. to have that. And so to think that, um you know I love my children with all my heart.
To think of them not being here, you know, that's I can't even fathom that.
So, to think that just God's sovereignty in all of it, like, you know, you don't have to think about the what-ifs, but just how. how sovereign God is, and I'm so thankful that I have, you know, my Western Adam in my life. Yeah. So what are some ways that you have noticed that the Lord has grown your faith through your loss of Adam? Um, I think one thing that I have always struggled with, even as a young child, was um.
Really believing in God's sovereignty in the sense of I knew it was there and I believed it, but really truly trusting that no, like what his plan is is the best plan. And I see lots of ways that the Lord was trying to teach me that when I was young and I kind of ignored him. And having this happen to me with Adam, seeing Just How everything was so to the minute orchestrated. You know, a co-worker before he left for work that day offered to heat him up some of her lunch that she had had. And he was like, No, no, no, I want to go home and left leftovers.
Like, if he had just stayed that one minute, but no, that wasn't God's plan. His plan was for him to leave, get in the car at that moment, and drive away. Just little tiny things here and there where I see God's hand and his sovereignty and in his plan of all of it, and knowing that through all of that, he is good. And that even when we don't understand, he is good. He will always be good.
And yeah. I think that that is such a beautiful thing that you're able to recognize and it shows your maturity in your faith in the Lord because. It'd be easy to say, Oh, if he had just stayed one more minute You know, this wouldn't have happened if he had just done this. But instead, your perspective is the Lord orchestrated everything so that this would be for our good and for his glory. And as a little caveat that I think you know, but Your story is what inspired Gifts of Hope.
which went on to Inspire Hope in the Morning, a Grief-Filled Guide through Grief, a Hope-Filled Guide through Grief, which is the book that you have your story fully written in there. And from that book was born this ministry. And You know what It does not by any means minimize your suffering or or make it make it like, oh, well, but if you hadn't gone through this, then this and this and this couldn't happen. But you're able to see the weavings of what the Lord does, and that the Lord is kind, and the Lord is good, even when it doesn't feel good in those moments. You know, I watched you go through those things and I really think that you had such a beautiful testimony, partly because you were willing to be vulnerable.
You know, you didn't put on this pretense of I'm so strong and this is so easy. I don't think you can. I think sometimes as believers, especially when we come from from really strong churches, There's almost um we almost feel obligated to respond that way. And That that's not necessarily beneficial to you or to those around you that are witnessing your grief. You know, I know from personal experience in in reading your story on your blog, in I remember still where I was when you posted that that he had died, and I just just the utter shock of that here.
You've been married five weeks and And yet you were willing to be vulnerable and talk about the hardest moments of it.
So you allowed us to come in so that we would know how can we actually minister to you? What should we say? What should we not say? You know, and even as you had mentioned that you've how many years have you been married to Wade now? We will be married in a couple weeks, actually, for seven years.
Okay. So seven years. Yeah. And out of that, You know, a remarriage does not negate the grief of your first marriage. And as you said, you'll always have an atom-shaped hole in your life.
And. Are there particular ways that you and Wade, and just as a family, that you remember and honor Adam? Yeah, so we have his picture and we show it to them. And then during that time of year, where, because it kind of all it kind of lumps together where it's my wedding anniversary with him, and then him passing, and then his birthday. They're all within like a month and a half.
Well, his birthday is Weston's, but there's just, I often will just. Just have that day, the day that he died of September 9th, of just looking through pictures. I'll watch our wedding video, things like that. And then as the kids have gotten older, letting them in to that experience and letting them know that it's okay to be sad sometimes and sorry, sorrowful. never making it that it's wrong to cry or wrong to still be grieving, and it doesn't mean I'm not still so happy in the life that I have now.
And then again, honoring him through his name. And then also I think One of the things I say thankful that Wade does is he lets me talk about Adam as much as I want to. And that has been really, really helpful in that I can bring up things like, oh, that was, Adam would have done that. And he's like, oh, really? And like, or he's like, hey, would Adam have liked that?
I'm like, oh, Adam would have loved that.
So just having him in our day-to-day lives in just little ways like that, you know, where I'm not sitting in my grief, but we're just rejoicing in who he was and who he was in my life.
Well, I am so appreciative that you are willing to come on here and relive some of those painful times and in order to share some of the purposes that you have seen God bring about through it.
So thank you so much for joining us on Hope in the Morning, Brighton. Yeah, join us next week for another episode of Hope in the Morning. Hope in the Morning is a non-profit ministry that seeks to encourage the hurting. Equip those who walk beside them. and evangelize the lost with the hope of Jesus Christ.
To partner with our ministry or to make a donation in your loved one's honor. Please visit hopeinthemorning.org. Your donation helps keep these stories of hope on the air. and helps tangibly meet the needs of the herding.
