Cory Monteith: A tribute

Though this is a news blog about celebrity families, I can't not acknowledge the sad event that transpired this weekend. Young Canadian actor Cory Monteith, 31, was beloved by so many of us and our children. Many of our families gathered to watch him shine on Glee.

My kids are too young to have enjoyed the show, but they knew about Monteith's character, Finn, because we loved his songs so much. Yes, I am the proud owner of two entire Glee albums.

In fact, my son and I have "a song" together from one of the albums: Monteith's beautiful rendition of "I'll Stand by You." I know this sounds corny, but we've always loved singing it together in the car. Admittedly, it used to make my eyes well up (even though we giggled as I inserted my son's name into the lyrics).... And I know that's partly because of the way Monteith sang it, with so much heart, soul, so much depth. My gosh, that voice. It was hard not to feel the intention behind the words each time, even as we giggled.

It's our song. And now it has even more meaning, sadly. Life is precious, our time together is sacred -- and life gets tough and lonely, so we must always stand by each other.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to Monteith's family, loved ones and to all those who stood by him.

Love... Haley-O

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