I built a grief tracker after my husband died of a brain tumor. No VC. No co-founder. No "healing journey" branding. Just rage and code.

Hey IH 👋

I'm Lora. 30. Widow. Mom to a toddler who
operates on demon energy. Owner of two cats
who judge me harder than any Product Hunt
commenter ever could.

I built Grief Ledger — a mood/grief/energy
tracker for people who are tired of being told
to "stay positive" while their life is actively
on fire.

Here's the story, the stack, and why every
"wellness app" on the market made me want to
throw my phone into the ocean.

🔥 THE ORIGIN
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My husband died of a brain tumor.

After he died, I did what every grieving person
does at 2am: I downloaded every mood tracker,
journal app, and "wellness" tool I could find.

They all had one thing in common:
they were built by people who had never lost
anything worse than their AirPods.

"Rate your gratitude today! 🌸"
"What made you smile? ☀️"
"Choose your mood: Happy, Okay, Meh, Sad"

WHERE IS THE OPTION FOR:
"I screamed into a pillow for 40 minutes and
then had to make a toddler lunch like nothing
happened"?

It didn't exist.

So I built it.

💀 WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES
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Grief Ledger lets you:

→ Track mood, energy, grief weight, and ambition
spark daily with four sliders. Takes 10 seconds.
Because grieving people don't have the bandwidth
for a 20-question check-in.

→ Brain dump at 2am. No character limit. No
"mindfulness prompt." Just a blank page that
doesn't judge you.

→ See your patterns over time. Visual proof that
last Tuesday was slightly less horrific than the
one before it. That's not toxic positivity.
That's DATA.

→ Community access for brain tumor patients,
caregivers, widows, and families — completely
free, forever. No verification. No diagnosis
papers. We run on the honor system because if
you're here, the worst thing already happened.
We trust you.

🛠️ HOW I BUILT IT
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I have zero CS degree. I have a psychology grad
diploma collecting dust somewhere and over a
decade of studying the human mind — which turns
out is more useful for UX than any bootcamp.

I know how broken brains work. I know what a
person at 2am with no executive function can
handle (hint: not a 6-step onboarding flow).

I used Replit to build and host it.
Solo founder. No team. No funding.
Just me, insomnia, and stubbornness.

Current status: Live. Functional.
Free for anyone who needs it.

📊 THE MARKET NOBODY SEES
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Here's what the wellness industry doesn't
understand about grief:

→ 2.5 million people are widowed every year
in the US alone
→ 700,000+ people are diagnosed with brain
tumors annually worldwide
→ The grief support market is dominated by
either clinical tools (cold, sterile,
insurance-coded) or Instagram affirmation
accounts (useless)
→ There is almost NOTHING in between

That "in between" is where real grieving people
live. Too functional for inpatient. Too broken
for "gratitude journals."

That's where Grief Ledger sits.

I didn't find this gap through market research.
I found it at 3am when I was looking for
something — ANYTHING — that didn't make me feel
like a failure for not being "healed" yet.

💰 BUSINESS MODEL
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→ Free tier: Basic daily tracking + journaling
→ Premium (planned): Advanced pattern analytics,
exportable reports for therapists,
and features I'm still building
→ Brain tumor community: Free forever. Period.
This isn't negotiable. I don't monetize
people's worst days.

Revenue goal: Sustainable, not unicorn.
I don't need to "disrupt" grief.
I need to pay for hosting and buy my
toddler new shoes every 3 weeks because
her feet grow like she's being watered.

🎯 WHAT'S NEXT
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→ Rage Mode — a dedicated angry journaling
space because grief isn't just sad, it's
FURIOUS, and no app acknowledges that

→ Therapist export — so users can show their
counselor actual data instead of saying
"I don't know, bad I guess?" for $200/hr

→ Anonymous community wall — one sentence,
no replies, no likes, just proof you're
not alone at 3am

→ Grief milestones that aren't toxic —
"First time you didn't cry at the grocery
store" > "30 days of gratitude 🌈"

→ Partnerships with grief support
organizations and brain tumor foundations

🔗 CHECK IT OUT + ASK ME ANYTHING
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Grief Ledger: grief-ledger.replit.app

I'm happy to answer anything — about the build,
the grief market, solo founding while parenting
a chaos toddler, or why every wellness app
makes you want to scream.

If you've lost someone and this resonates,
I'm sorry. Not in the "thoughts and prayers"
way. In the "I know what 2am feels like" way.

Track the wreckage. Without pretending it's pretty.