00:00This is Caitlin. She fell in love with Rory.
00:05After my husband Aaron passed away, I found love with his brother.
00:09I have gotten comments online about our relationship saying,
00:12oh, that makes me sick.
00:14I thought it was a little weird.
00:17My first thought was, how would Aaron feel?
00:20I knew he would not like that at all.
00:23He would not be happy.
00:24Did you feel guilty?
00:26Um, thank you.
00:30Who wants cereal?
00:33Whoops.
00:35Aaron and I actually met when we were in elementary school.
00:39I was 18 when I started dating him.
00:43So when Aaron and I first got together,
00:45we abused prescription drugs together.
00:48And then when I got pregnant, we both stopped.
00:51Then after, like, when Cam was like six months old,
00:53we started using pills again.
00:56We've moved on to harder drugs.
00:59We would just, like, fight a lot when we were getting high.
01:02Like, we would turn into different people.
01:03Like, it was really not healthy.
01:08So when Aaron and Caitlin were together,
01:10I definitely was not very fond of her
01:13because I just didn't really trust her.
01:17While we were using, our personalities changed so fast,
01:20and the things that we did were so out of character for ourselves.
01:25In 2015, we were stealing from people.
01:29We were doing whatever we could to get high,
01:31and it was just terrible.
01:33So I decided that I really wanted to go to rehab and get help.
01:39While I was at rehab,
01:41I could hear it in his voice that he was still using
01:43every time that he called me.
01:45I just revoked the consent so that he, um,
01:48they wouldn't tell me when he was calling.
01:50I just could not ever imagine, like, not being with him.
01:53Once I was separated from him and I was at rehab,
01:55I was like, I think that I would be okay if I wasn't with him.
02:00But I never imagined the whole situation flipping.
02:05A week before I was supposed to get out,
02:07I got the phone call that Aaron had overdosed,
02:10and he passed away.
02:13Closed my eyes back then.
02:14Even if we weren't together right in that moment,
02:16we were eventually going to be together, I thought.
02:20I know that I did what I had to do to protect my own sobriety,
02:25but it has been hard to, like,
02:27kind of deal with the survivor's guilt of that.
02:30I would never have imagined getting a phone call
02:34that my younger brother died.
02:36On top of losing a brother,
02:38I felt very bad for Kaitlyn and Camden.
02:41Camden was a huge concern of mine,
02:43just didn't know what his future looked like
02:46without having a dad, you know what I mean, and everything.
02:48And I was like, oh, my goodness.
02:49Rory actually called me, and it was just so weird.
02:54I was not expecting his voice to remind me of Aaron's so much.
02:58It was such comfort.
02:59Like, I was like, oh, my God.
03:01I guess the conversation I had with Kait
03:04was met with a type of a different side of her
03:07I hadn't seen before, compassion and understanding.
03:11Rory started to come to visit me and Camden on the weekends,
03:15and that's kind of how we started getting closer.
03:27Grammy's home.
03:28Grammy's here, yay.
03:30First, we were kind of both hesitant
03:33on letting our relationship be known to our families.
03:38We didn't want them thinking that, like,
03:41we didn't care about Aaron.
03:43Can you guys go play for a little bit?
03:44Hi, son.
03:45I want to go one more time.
03:47Go play.
03:48Me and Jess, we've always gotten along,
03:50but after he passed away, we clung to each other even more
03:53because I was the closest thing to Aaron.
03:56I never, ever, ever, ever, ever would have thought
04:01these two would end up together.
04:04I thought it was a little weird.
04:07Is that a good word?
04:09My first thought was, how would Aaron feel?
04:13I knew he would not like it at all.
04:16He would not be happy.
04:18But after Rory and I had a conversation about it,
04:22once I looked at it the way he was looking at it,
04:25you know, and you can't help who you have feelings for.
04:27You just can't.
04:28She was part of our life.
04:30She had Camden.
04:31She was always going to be around anyways,
04:33and it's not my determination who my kids are with.
04:38As far as my grandson's concerned,
04:40I thought it would be great because Rory and Aaron
04:43were raised in the same household,
04:45so they had pretty much the same values.
04:47So I knew that with her being with Rory,
04:51then Camden would be raised with the same values
04:54that Aaron would have raised him with.
04:56Camden was really young when his dad died.
04:58He was only 2.
04:59And when Rory and I got together,
05:01he just took on the position of the dad role for Camden.
05:05I had mentioned to Kate about me talking to Cam
05:09to see if he wanted to call me dad,
05:11and Katelyn was completely okay with it.
05:14Ended up just kind of asking like,
05:16hey buddy, I know I am your uncle,
05:18but if you want to call me dad, I would love that,
05:22and you could definitely do that.
05:26And his face lit up, and I've been dad since.
05:30Since they have all the kids,
05:31I think they've both definitely grown a lot.
05:34They've come into who they are.
05:36Katelyn's definitely come a long way.
05:39Well, I still am a drug addict in recovery, technically.
05:43But yeah, I know.
05:44It's a lot different.
05:45I think that we had a lot of obstacles to overcome together,
05:50and that was a lot of mental work.
05:52Did you feel guilty?
05:56I think, yeah, I struggled.
05:58I had questions about whether or not we were making
06:02the right decision in being together.
06:04But like Rory said, Aaron wasn't an option,
06:07and that was the only person who I cared about
06:10opinion on that matter, really.
06:12I have gotten comments online about our relationship,
06:16saying like, oh, that makes me sick.
06:19Yeah, like an uncle-daddy or whatever,
06:21and I like to correct him.
06:23I say, it's dunkle.
06:24It's not daddy-uncle or uncle-daddy.
06:27It's dunkle.
06:28So you embrace dunkle?
06:29No, I'm just, I'm totally being a smart-ass.
06:32But the negativity doesn't do anything to us.
06:35So you felt happy to be able to call him dad?
06:37Yeah, because I'm lucky that I have a dad.
06:41He was happy to like have that?
06:44Yeah.
06:45Yeah.
06:46I think we're good for one another.
06:48Almost seven years in, we have proven to be a great team
06:53and create a beautiful family.
06:55If you had a message for Aaron, what would it be?
06:58Kate and Cam are good.
07:01Just because.
07:13Aaron's biggest concern was always Kate and Cam.
07:17So I think he would be happy to know that, of all people.
07:26If Aaron knew about this now,
07:29and seeing what we've been through and where we are today,
07:32I think he would be very comforted that somebody's there
07:37and how you guys are doing.
07:39Yeah, I think he'd be very proud of where we started
07:42and where we've come.
07:44All right, everybody, look right over here.
07:46Big smile, big smile, big smile.
07:55All right, everybody, look right over here.
07:57Big smile, big smile, big smile.
07:59All right, everybody, look right over here.
08:01Big smile, big smile, big smile.
08:03All right, everybody, look right over here.
08:05Big smile, big smile, big smile.
08:07All right, everybody, look right over here.
08:09Big smile, big smile, big smile.
08:11All right, everybody, look right over here.
08:13Big smile, big smile, big smile.
08:15All right, everybody, look right over here.
08:17Big smile, big smile, big smile.
08:19All right, everybody, look right over here.
08:21Big smile, big smile, big smile.
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