Heavy/HGTV/YouTube "No Demo Reno" star Jenn Todryk
Jenn Todryk, star of HGTV‘s “No Demo Reno,” is about to spend her second consecutive Christmas supporting her parents through grief.
“I think watching a parent lose a parent is one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing, I’ve had to watch,” she told her followers in a series of Instagram Stories on December 14, 2023.
The day prior, as reported by Heavy, Todryk revealed that her paternal grandmother had died, posting a touching tribute in her Stories. After an outpouring of messages from her fans, Todryk returned with a lengthy video to thank everyone for their kindness.
In her video, she shared new details not only about her grandma’s death, but about the grief of losing her mom’s dad the year before.
Here’s what you need to know:
Jenn Todryk Reveals Her Grandma Died Peacefully, But Her Grandpa Did Not
Todryk began her video message to fans by thanking them for their kindness since revealing her grandma’s death.
“Thank y’all so much for all of your condolences,” she said. “It means so much to me. I couldn’t respond back to every message even if I wanted to and had 24 hours to do it. There’s no way, there’s so many! So thank you so much. I truly feel the support and the love and the prayers. I really do.”
Todryk then shared that her grandma would have turned 90 on December 22, sharing that she was “one of the kindest people, if not the kindest person, I’ve ever known.”
“Not only did she live a long life, she lived a great quality of life,” Todryk marveled. “That woman lived by herself until about two months ago whenever she took a fall, but was living by herself, and happy, and she was amazing.”
Todryk said she was relieved that her grandma died in her sleep, adding that she feels that’s become a rarity.
“Me and my friends were talking about this,” she explained. “How many people do you know you can say they died peacefully in their sleep anymore? I don’t know anyone. Like, I feel like, I don’t know why that, like, doesn’t happy anymore. And that’s what she had, so I personally have a lot of peace because of that.”
Todryk then said the same was not true for her grandpa, Richard (Dick) Cartnal. According to the Newark Advocate, the former dental surgeon and high school baseball coach died in an Ohio hospice facility in April 2022.
Comparing his difficult final days to her grandmother’s peaceful passing, Todryk said in her video, “It was not painless, and it was not peaceful and it was really hard.”
After her grandpa’s death, Todryk shared on Instagram in July 2022 that her family had helped her mom’s mom move out of the Ohio home they’d lived in for 55 years, in order for her to live closer to them in Texas.
Jenn Todryk Sympathizes With Others Dealing With Grief During the Holidays
Facing a second Christmas with a cloud of grief over her family, Todryk extended her condolences to others facing similar situations.
“Like, (with) someone losing someone, you never know what to say and what you say isn’t right,” she said. “And it’s just hard. It’s a hard thing. So if you’re going through it, especially around the holiday, I’m so sorry. It makes it even that much harder.”
Todryk acknowledged that, at 35, she’s beginning to realize that losing those she loves and supporting others through grief, especially her parents, is becoming a continual theme in her life.
“I feel like I’m in that phase where it’s just happening, it keeps happening” she said. “We’re like, in that phase where it’s just happening…and it’s hard.”
Recognizing that someday she’ll have to deal with losing her own parents, Todryk said, “And I’m just sitting here, like, knowing that I’m going to be in that position one day. Like, we all are. It’s part of life. And then I stop thinking about it because that’s a horrible thought train to go down.”
Todryk said she’s grateful for distractions like all the busyness around the holidays to help her deal with the fresh grief of losing her grandma.
“There’s still a lot of, you know, happiness to be had and (I’m) thinking about her as we do these things, just as she’d want us to,” she said.