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 DeLaSalle High School is a Catholic, college preparatory high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is located on Nicollet Island. History DeLaSalle opened in 1900 and has been administered by the De La Salle Brothers (French Christian Brothers ...

, 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. 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 A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

"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 Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:McInerny, Nora Living people American women non-fiction writers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Writers from Minneapolis American people of Irish descent Xavier University alumni American women podcasters American podcasters