If you have followed my videos, my articles, or my work at GAMESQ, PLC, you may have noticed that I went quiet for a while.

I recently looked at my recording software and realized the last video I filmed before coming back was in October. Then November passed. Then December. Then January. Then February. By the time I sat back down behind the camera, it was March. Daylight saving time had passed, the Arizona sun was warming up again, and I had to answer a simple question:

Where had I been?

The short answer is this: I was grieving.

The longer answer is the reason I am writing this.

I am a Phoenix car accident lawyer, and I spend a lot of my professional life helping people after trauma. Car accidents. Motorcycle crashes. Truck accidents. Wrongful death cases. Insurance company delays. Medical bills. Fear. Pain. Confusion.

But lawyers are human beings too.

Behind the AV rating, the courtroom experience, the insurance company knowledge, and the legal strategy, there is still a son, a father, a brother, and a person trying to make sense of loss.

This article is not just about me being gone from YouTube for a few months. It is about grief, work, responsibility, empathy, and why the human side of law matters when you are choosing the person who will guide you through one of the hardest seasons of your life.

My Mother Passed Away on November 3, 2025

On November 3, 2025, my mother passed away at the age of 88.

She lived a full life. She was strong. She was clear. She was loved. In her final moments, she was surrounded by my father and my brother. My brother is a board-certified internal medicine specialist who focuses on geriatrics, so I took comfort knowing she had the kind of care and understanding every aging parent deserves.

I live and work in Arizona. My parents were in Minnesota. That distance did not weaken the bond between us.

When my mother began her final decline, she called me. She wanted to give me her final words. She wanted to share her final message. She wanted to give me one last lesson.

I did not hesitate. I bought a one-way ticket to Minnesota.

I spent two days with her. I listened. I sat with her. I took in every word I could. After those two days, she looked at me and told me it was time for me to go back to my family. She had said what she needed to say.

That was my mother.

Even at the end, she was still parenting. Still guiding. Still thinking about everyone else. Still making sure her family had what we needed to keep going.

I have handled serious injury cases. I have seen families face sudden loss. I have represented people whose entire lives changed in seconds because of a crash. But nothing prepares you for watching your own mother leave this world.

What Anticipatory Grief Taught Me

Because my mother called me before she passed, I had the chance to say goodbye while she was still here.

That changed my grief.

It did not make the loss easy. Nothing makes losing your mother easy. But it gave the grief a different shape. It gave us a final conversation. It gave me the gift of knowing where I stood with her, and knowing she was at peace with me.

People often call this anticipatory grief. It is the grief that begins before death happens, when you know the loss is coming but you are still living inside the waiting.

That waiting can be brutal.

You are grieving someone who is still alive. You are trying to be present, but part of your mind is already preparing for the phone call. You are trying to stay strong, but your body knows something permanent is happening.

For me, the final visit mattered because it made the ending intentional. I was not left wondering if she knew I loved her. I was not left wondering if I should have gone. I went. I listened. I was there.

That matters.

And it changed the way I think about my clients.

Many people who call a Phoenix personal injury lawyer are also grieving before they fully understand what they lost. They may be grieving the body they had before the crash. They may be grieving their old routine. They may be grieving their independence, their ability to work, or the safety they used to feel when driving through Phoenix.

Not all grief comes from death.

Sometimes grief starts when you realize your life before the accident is not coming back the same way.

Watching My Father Grieve

While I was dealing with my own loss, I was also watching my father grieve.

My parents met at Arizona State College, before it became Arizona State University. My father was 18 years old. They were married for 61 years.

Sixty-one years.

When you have been with someone that long, they are not just your spouse. They are your memory bank. Your routine. Your witness. Your partner in the ordinary parts of life that become sacred only after they are gone.

My father is 87. For the first time in his adult life, he is without my mother.

That is hard to even write.

He wakes up at night sometimes thinking she is still there, thinking she needs help. Then the truth returns. She is gone.

During this season, I also started to see what I call the first fissures. Small signs. Early signs. The kind of signs that make you wonder if dementia is beginning to show itself. That is terrifying.

I have been afraid that my father could die of a broken heart. I do not say that as a medical diagnosis. I say that as a son watching a man try to live after losing the woman who was his world.

And that has deepened something in me.

When a family calls me after a fatal crash, I do not hear a “case.” I hear a family that may now have an empty chair at the table. I hear children without a parent. I hear a spouse who may wake up in the middle of the night forgetting, for just one second, that everything has changed.

That is why wrongful death cases in Arizona must be handled with seriousness and care. Under Arizona law, actions for injury causing death are generally subject to a two-year limitation period that accrues at the death of the injured person, according to A.R.S. § 12-542.

Being a Lawyer While Grieving

One of the hardest parts of this season was balancing my grief with my professional responsibility.

When you are hurt in a serious Arizona car accident, you need your lawyer to be focused. You need someone who can deal with the insurance company, protect evidence, evaluate medical records, calculate damages, and tell you the truth.

So what happens when your lawyer is also grieving?

For me, the answer was transparency.

The first people outside my family who learned that my mother had passed were my clients. I emailed every client and told them what had happened. I told them I needed time to take care of my family. I also told them that I would still handle anything critical.

If an insurance adjuster called with a settlement offer, I was taking that call.

If a deadline had to be protected, it was getting protected.

If something urgent happened in a case, I would deal with it.

But I needed about a week to focus on my family.

The response from my clients was overwhelming. They showed me grace. They showed me empathy. They understood that the attorney-client relationship is built on trust, not performance. They did not need me to pretend to be invincible. They needed me to be honest.

That is one of the lessons I want people to take from this.

You do not build trust by acting like you are not human. You build trust by telling the truth.

That is also how I try to practice law.

At GAMESQ, PLC, I am not trying to be a settlement mill. I am not trying to run a paralegal army where clients never speak to the actual attorney. My firm’s content strategy and brand standards emphasize direct attorney communication, transparency, anti-settlement-mill advocacy, and Garrick McFadden personally handling cases rather than running a high-volume operation.

Why This Matters After a Car Accident

A car accident is not just a legal event.

It is a human event.

Arizona’s 2024 crash data reported 119,991 total crashes and 1,228 deaths on Arizona roads, which means thousands of families had to deal with injury, fear, disruption, or loss in a single year. Behind every crash statistic is a person who had plans that day, a family expecting them home, and a life that may now be divided into “before” and “after.”

That is why I do not like treating personal injury law like a factory.

When someone calls me after a crash, they may be dealing with:

• Physical pain
• Medical appointments
• Missed work
• Anxiety about driving
• Insurance company calls
• Car repair problems
• Family stress
• Fear that nobody believes them
• Grief over the life they had before the wreck

If that sounds dramatic, it is not. It is real.

A serious crash can take away your sense of control. One minute you are driving through Phoenix, Maryvale, Glendale, Avondale, Surprise, Goodyear, or Mesa. The next minute, someone else’s bad decision has put your body, your finances, and your future in the hands of adjusters, doctors, and lawyers.

That is why choosing the right lawyer matters.

You need someone who understands the law. You also need someone who understands people.

The Legal Side Still Matters

Empathy is important, but empathy alone does not win cases.

Arizona car accident cases still require evidence, deadlines, strategy, and legal knowledge. Under A.R.S. § 12-542, most Arizona personal injury claims must be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrues. Missing that deadline can destroy a claim, no matter how serious the injuries are.

Arizona also follows pure comparative negligence under A.R.S. § 12-2505, which means contributory negligence does not bar a claim, but damages are reduced in proportion to the claimant’s share of fault. In plain English, even if the insurance company says you were partly at fault, that does not automatically mean you have no case in Arizona.

That matters because insurance companies often use fault arguments to pressure injured people.

They may say:

• You stopped too suddenly
• You should have seen the other driver
• Your injuries are not related
• Your treatment was too much
• Your prior medical history is the real problem
• The crash was minor, so you cannot be seriously hurt

This is where legal skill and human understanding have to work together.

A lawyer has to know how to respond to the insurance company. But a lawyer also has to understand what it feels like for a client to be blamed while they are hurt, scared, and trying to heal.

That is why I often tell people: do not let the insurance company define your story before you understand your rights.

If you are dealing with adjusters after a crash, read my guide on why insurance companies want recorded statements before you give one.

Grief Made Me More Empathetic, Not Less Effective

Some people think vulnerability makes a lawyer weaker.

I disagree.

Grief did not make me less serious about my clients’ cases. It made me more aware of what is at stake.

When I came back to work, I did not come back detached. I came back with a deeper understanding of how quickly life changes. I came back thinking about the families who call after losing someone. I came back thinking about clients who are trying to keep working while their bodies are breaking down. I came back thinking about people who are expected to “move on” while still living with pain every day.

During the months after my mother’s passing, I still worked. I settled cases. I handled arbitrations. I attended trial skills seminars. I continued improving as an advocate.

But I also saw my therapist.

At one point, I was seeing my therapist weekly.

I say that openly because there should be no shame in getting help. Lawyers deal with trauma for a living. Personal injury lawyers spend their days listening to pain, reviewing injury records, negotiating over suffering, and helping people through some of the hardest moments of their lives.

That weight adds up.

When my personal grief met the professional grief I carry for clients, I knew I needed support. So I got it.

That did not make me less capable. It made me more stable, more honest, and more present.

And if you are reading this while grieving, injured, depressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, I want you to hear this clearly:

It is okay to not be okay.

What My Silence Taught Me About Client Communication

My time away from video also reminded me why communication matters so much in legal work.

When a lawyer disappears, clients feel abandoned.

When clients do not know what is happening, their anxiety grows. They start wondering if the insurance company is winning. They start wondering if their lawyer forgot about them. They start wondering if they made a mistake.

That is why one of my core beliefs is that clients deserve direct communication.

The GAMESQ content and brand guide emphasizes that Garrick McFadden personally answers client calls, handles cases directly, and rejects the “settlement mill” model where clients are passed off to non-attorney staff. That direct access is not a gimmick. It is part of how trust gets built.

If I needed time for my family, I told my clients.

If something important was happening in their case, I handled it.

If there was no update, I still believed they deserved to know they had not been forgotten.

That is how I think lawyers should operate.

If you hired a lawyer after a crash and your calls are not being returned, your concern is valid. You can learn more about that issue here: Hired the Wrong Phoenix Car Accident Lawyer? Here Is How to Fix It Now.

The Human Side of Damages

In Arizona personal injury cases, damages are not just numbers.

Yes, we look at medical bills. Yes, we look at lost wages. Yes, we look at repair costs, future treatment, and insurance limits.

But the human side matters too.

Pain and suffering is not some fake category lawyers invented. It is the law’s imperfect way of recognizing that an injury affects your life beyond the medical invoice.

A person can lose sleep after a crash.

A parent can stop picking up their child because back pain makes it impossible.

A worker can lose confidence because a concussion changes how they think.

A spouse can lose intimacy because pain, depression, or fear has changed the relationship.

A family can lose the person they knew, even if that person survived.

That is why emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and trauma after a crash deserve to be taken seriously. If that is part of your experience, I have written more about it here: Car Accident Lawyer for Emotional Distress.

My own grief reminded me that people do not fit neatly into claim forms.

A good lawyer has to document the medical evidence. But a good lawyer also has to listen carefully enough to understand the life impact.

What I Want Clients to Know

If you are going through a hard season after a car accident, I want you to know a few things.

First, you do not have to have everything figured out before calling a lawyer. Most people call me while they are still confused. That is normal.

Second, the insurance company is not your counselor, your advocate, or your friend. The adjuster may be polite, but the insurance company’s financial interest is not the same as yours.

Third, your case is not just about the gross settlement number. What matters is what you net after attorney fees, case costs, medical bills, liens, and insurance reimbursement claims are handled.

Fourth, your mental health matters. If you are anxious, depressed, grieving, or afraid to drive, do not ignore it. Tell your doctors. Tell your lawyer. Get help.

Fifth, if someone died, the case requires even more care. Arizona wrongful death claims involve legal rights, family relationships, deadlines, and damages that must be handled with precision and compassion.

Finally, you deserve to work with a lawyer who sees you as a person, not a file.

Why I Came Back

I came back because this work still matters.

My mother would not have wanted me to stop. She would have wanted me to take care of my family, honor my grief, and then keep doing the work I was called to do.

So I am back.

I am back behind the camera. I am back writing. I am back teaching. I am back helping people understand Arizona car accident law, insurance company tactics, medical documentation, and what it really takes to recover after a crash.

But I am not back as the exact same person.

Loss changes you.

My mother’s death changed the way I think about time. It changed the way I think about family. It changed the way I think about clients who are sitting in pain, waiting for someone to tell them what comes next.

That is the human side of law.

And I do not want to practice without it.

FAQs About Grief, Car Accidents, and Arizona Injury Claims

Can grief be part of a personal injury claim after an Arizona car accident?

Grief itself is not always a separate legal claim, but emotional distress can be part of the damages in a serious injury or wrongful death case. The key is documentation through medical records, mental health treatment, witness statements, and evidence showing how the crash changed your life.

How long do I have to file a car accident lawsuit in Arizona?

Most Arizona personal injury claims must be filed within two years under A.R.S. § 12-542. Wrongful death claims are also generally governed by a two-year period that accrues at death, according to the same statute.

What if the insurance company says I was partly at fault?

Arizona follows pure comparative negligence under A.R.S. § 12-2505, so being partly at fault does not automatically prevent recovery. Your damages are reduced based on your percentage of fault.

Should I tell my lawyer if I am struggling emotionally after a crash?

Yes. Your lawyer needs to understand the full impact of the accident, including anxiety, depression, sleep problems, fear of driving, and changes in family life. If your emotional symptoms are serious, you should also talk to a qualified medical or mental health professional.

Why does attorney communication matter so much after a car accident?

Poor communication makes an already stressful situation worse. A good lawyer should explain the process, protect deadlines, respond to important questions, and make sure you understand what is happening with your case.

Does GAMESQ, PLC offer free consultations?

Yes. You can contact GAMESQ, PLC for a free consultation about an Arizona car accident, serious injury, or wrongful death case. The firm’s model emphasizes contingency fees, no upfront costs, direct attorney communication, and personal attention.

Talk to a Phoenix Car Accident Lawyer Who Understands the Human Side

If you were hurt in a crash in Phoenix or anywhere in Arizona, you need more than a lawyer who knows how to talk tough.

You need someone who understands the law, the insurance company playbook, and the human cost of what happened.

I am Garrick McFadden, founder of GAMESQ, PLC. I am an AV-rated Phoenix car accident lawyer, a former Progressive Insurance in-house defense attorney, and the owner of a Black-owned Arizona personal injury law firm built to protect people, not process them like files.

Call GAMESQ, PLC today for a free consultation.

Your injuries. Our fight. Your win.

Watch the full video here: Where Have I Been?