It’s been 16 months since Whitney Lyn Allen’s husband — Hatboro K9 police officer Ryan Allen — was felled by a happenstance bee sting at his Quakertown home.

She spent much of that period grieving and attending to her newborn son, who she was carrying during Ryan’s initial incapacity.

But she also carved out both the strength to move forward and the generosity to share the story of the mourning she and her family traversed.

That chronicle is now a published book, Running in Trauma Stilettos, available Feb. 21.

Whitney’s Own Words

She shared these updates with MONTCO Today.

How are you and your family — and German Shepherd partner Louie — doing now?

My sons (Jackson (5) and Leo (1) and I are doing very well.

After Ryan died, we were tasked with having to find a new way of life without him. This has taken some time, but I am happy to say that we have been able to find a new routine and rhythm in our home.

The boys are my light and joy and bring me so much comfort every day.

Writing my book and becoming a certified grief educator has kept me very busy and also has given me a lot of purpose through this difficult transition.

After Ryan’s accident, I decided that I wanted his K9, Louie to continue Ryan’s legacy by working, so he is with a new handler.

We don’t see him often, but I am told he is doing very well.

How have you reconciled yourself to what’s happened?

I think sharing my story and my journey about grief and trauma — how I am rebuilding my life after loss — has been very beneficial in my healing.

I hear from many people every day about how sharing our family’s story is helping them through their own adversities. I have come to peace with the fact that bad things happen in life no matter what we do and therefore living with joy every day, knowing how fragile life is, is very important to me.

Has there been any light in this time of grief?

There have been so many moments of joy woven into the landscape of grief and trauma we have had to navigate since October 2021 when Ryan’s accident happened.

My children only know joy and their love for life is what keeps me grounded on the hard days.

Celebrating certain milestones like birthdays and holidays with my boys and my family have given me a lot of joy.

I have also found love after loss, and that new relationship has helped me heal and has given me so much peace in the chaos of rebuilding my life and finding myself again.

How did your story evolve into a published book?

After Ryan’s accident, I started sharing his journey and our family’s journey online to keep people updated on his status.

These updates reached so many people and I began getting hundreds of messages from those who resonated with the themes in my posts: grief, trauma, hope, faith, resilience.

After his death, I felt compelled to write [the] book … . I realized from the messages I received that our society is not very well versed about these topics and that people were desperate to feel seen and heard in their struggles.

There are very few people that speak about grief and trauma in a real and raw way and I wanted to shed light on these subjects without romanticizing it — to show people what it is really like and thus helping people going through their own worst days feel seen.

During the writing of the book, I was extremely motivated to help others by the work and the written words came very natural to me. I was therefore able to write the book very quickly.

More Information

Additional information on Whitney Allen, grief counseling, and Running in Trauma Stilettos is online.

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Officer Ryan Allen’s transferal from rehab to hospice, from which he would not recover, was a solemn moment in local law enforcement history.

Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on MONTCO Today in February 2023.