For years, even as Laila Tarraf continued to feel disconnected from others, her belief that any vulnerability would make her soft dictated her personal life and her work as an HR leader. The firstborn child of Lebanese parents, she was encouraged to step up and take care of the family from a young age. She sometimes resented that role but then she met and married her husband and became a mother and began a new life. A year into their marriage he had a serious motorcycle accident, was prescribed pain pills, and never stopped taking them. Over the next six years they never discussed the topic of his drug and alcohol abuse; his dependence and their marital disconnect went unsaid. Their marriage began to collapse and soon after he overdosed on opioids. It wasn’t until her mother was dying that Laila was able to better understand her history with co-dependent relationships, deal with the death of her husband, and be at her mom’s bedside as her life ended. Her experience informed her leadership, her mothering, and her approach to the unexpected. Her new book Strong Like Water is out now.