hi My name is Marnie Vandenbroek Hookey
STAY GOLD
On July 18, 2010, my life changed in an instant.
My husband passed away suddenly, and in a single moment, everything I thought my future would look like disappeared. Overnight, I became a widow with a six-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter looking to me for strength when I wasn’t sure I had any left.
I found myself navigating overwhelming grief while trying to hold life together for my children. I stepped away from my job and my business because survival became my priority. I felt completely lost. I questioned who I was, what my purpose was, and how I was ever going to rebuild a life that no longer resembled the one I had planned.
Along the way, I also carried the weight of judgment. Judgment over the decisions I made. Judgment when I chose to move forward. Judgment when I found love again. Even judgment for allowing myself to experience happiness after unimaginable loss. It made me question myself, silence parts of who I was, and wonder if I would ever feel free to live authentically again.
But somewhere in that journey, I realized something profound. No one else could define my life. No one else could tell me what my timeline should look like or what rebuilding was supposed to be. Healing isn’t about leaving the past behind. It’s about learning to carry it while choosing to move forward.
Looking back, I didn’t know it then, but those experiences became the foundation of the work I do today.
For years, I learned how to survive.
I rebuilt my life. I remarried. We blended our family and continued moving forward. From the outside, life looked full, and in many ways, it was. But beneath the surface, I was still carrying unresolved grief, pain, and questions about who I really was. I had become very good at functioning, but I still felt lost.
November 16, 2023, my world changed again.
I lost my brother to suicide. His death forced me to confront everything I had spent years trying to outrun. It cracked me open in a way I never expected. I realized that surviving wasn’t the same as healing. I could no longer keep living on the surface.
That became the turning point. I immersed myself in understanding identity, the beliefs we carry without questioning, and the patterns that quietly shape our lives. I invested in my own growth and began rebuilding from the inside out.
My brother left behind a painting called Stay Gold. More than a piece of art, it became a reminder to keep searching for the light, even in life’s darkest moments. That painting became the inspiration behind Stay Gold & Becoming.
Today, my purpose is to help others do what I had to learn for myself: move beyond survival, reconnect with who they truly are, and create a life that aligns with the person they are becoming.
Lived experience alone wasn’t enough for me.
I wanted to understand why we stay stuck in familiar patterns and what it truly takes to create lasting change. Over the past year, I’ve immersed myself in intensive mentorship and coaching education, studying human behavior, emotional resilience, leadership, and transformational coaching, while completing my ICF Level 1 coach education.
This work hasn’t just changed how I coach. It has changed how I live. It’s given me the tools to move beyond surviving and into intentional living, and it shapes everything I now do with my clients: combining lived experience with professional coaching and proven transformational tools to help people reconnect with who they truly are, challenge what’s been holding them back, and step into the life and leadership they were created for.
When I look back on my life, I no longer see only the tragedies. I see the choices.
I chose to keep going when everything in me wanted to give up. I chose to heal instead of becoming defined by my pain. I chose to believe that life could still hold joy, purpose, and possibility, even after unimaginable loss.
Those choices didn’t just transform me. They transformed the people around me. My greatest hope has always been that my children and my family would see, through my life, that our circumstances do not have to determine our future — that grief and adversity can shape us without defining us, and that we are capable of rebuilding, growing, loving again, and creating a life that is deeply meaningful.
Resilience isn’t about pretending life isn’t hard. It’s about having the courage to keep becoming, even when life asks everything of you.
My story isn’t about grief. It’s about transformation.
Life has a way of presenting all of us with experiences that shape how we see ourselves — loss, failure, divorce, burnout, self-doubt, career transitions, broken relationships, or simply feeling disconnected from the person you know you’re capable of becoming. I know what it feels like to lose your sense of self. I also know what it feels like to rebuild it. That is why I do this work.
Coaching isn’t about staying stuck in the past. It’s about gaining clarity, challenging the beliefs that no longer serve you, and intentionally creating a life that reflects your values, your purpose, and your potential. My role is to help you move forward with confidence and clarity — focusing on where you are today, where you want to go, and the person you need to become to get there.
Because your future isn’t created by your past. It’s created by the choices you make today.
We all have a story. The question is, what story are you choosing to write next?