Starter Girlz Podcast

From Widow to Warrior: Her Remarkable Comeback

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 7 • Episode 84

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In this powerful episode of the Starter Girlz Podcast, Jennifer sits down with Maureen Jirikowic, a woman whose world turned upside down after losing her husband to terminal cancer. What followed was a deeply personal and courageous journey of healing, rebuilding, and rediscovering her purpose.

Maureen shares how she moved through unimaginable grief and turned her pain into strength—becoming a voice for other women walking a similar path. From navigating emotional triggers to reclaiming her space and launching her podcast Widow Talk, Maureen offers honest insights and practical advice for life after loss.

This conversation is for anyone who has faced heartbreak, is supporting a grieving loved one, or is seeking hope after tragedy. It’s a raw, relatable, and inspiring message of resilience and transformation.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • The emotional realities of losing a spouse and what grief really looks like
  • How routines, mindset, and spiritual practices supported Maureen’s healing
  • Practical ways to declutter and rebuild your space after loss
  • Insights on finances, friendships, and finding identity again
  • Why Maureen created a podcast to help other widows heal and connect

Whether you’re grieving, starting over, or just need a reminder of your strength—this episode will meet you where you are and help light the way forward.

Maureen Jirikowic:

And you know, decluttering that's a tough one and every widow is different with that. So I'm about a year and a half in to being a widow and I had just this spark of energy that came across me and I said, you know what? It's time. So I cleaned out a closet that used to be my husband, Pete, and then I also cleaned out a bedroom.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and wellbeing while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, Jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girlz podcast. Wherever you are tuning in today, we are so glad to have you and I am so excited today because, as you can tell, we are not sitting. Well, we are behind a screen, but we're not sitting with the guest across from the other guest in another part of the city, the state, the world, whatever. I'm actually sitting right here with the guest and so this is going to be so much fun. So, before I get her officially on here she's here, but officially her title I want to set this episode up. Sometimes, life invites us to rise through heartbreak and find strength in places we never imagined. Today's guest is no stranger to transformation. Rooted in small-town Midwestern values, she built a remarkable career helping women achieve their goals, earning recognition in the top 2% of her field. But it was an unexpected season, a profound loss that ultimately gave her a deeper mission and a new sense of purpose, and so you guys are going to get to hear from her in just a few minutes. But before we do that, we do need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

This episode is brought to you by Walt Mills Productions. Need to add excitement to your YouTube videos or some expert hands for editing? Look no further. Walt Mills is the solution you've been searching for. Walt is not only your go-to guy for spicing up content. He's the force behind a thriving film production company with numerous titles in the pipeline. Always on the lookout for raw talent, walt is eager to collaborate on film and internet productions. With a background deeply rooted in entertainment and promotion, walt Mills leverages years of skills to give you the spotlight you deserve. Want to learn more about Walt and his work? Head on over to waltmillsproductions. net and let your content shine All right, and with that, we do want to tell you to head on over to startergirlz. com.

Jennifer Loehding:

Why? For a couple of reasons, actually, three reasons. One you can sign up for our community newsletter and be in the know of all the episodes that are going out, including this one. You can also catch up on any episodes that you might have missed, and there are a lot of them. You can go back to the beginning and see all of them. And then, lastly, if you are an aspiring entrepreneur or maybe you're just rocking the scene right now and or know you want to learn a little bit more, we do have a fun quiz on the site. It's a two-minute quiz that will tell you what your number one success block is that may be hindering your success. So go over there and take that quiz. It's fun. You might find out something new about yourself, and with that, we do want to bring our guest on the show, all right.

Jennifer Loehding:

So, after walking through a year and a half journey alongside her husband during his battle with terminal cancer, Maureen Jirikowic emerged with a calling to help others find light after loss. Now a widow and passionate voice for healing, she's launching a podcast designed to support women as they navigate grief, rediscover their identity and rebuild a meaningful life. With courage, compassion and a heart for connection. Maureen is turning her pain into purpose and inviting others to do the same. So, maureen, I'm so excited to have you on the show today. Thank you for having me, Jen.

Jennifer Loehding:

This is going to be so much fun. And we're on the camera together, which is so weird because I started, maureen, just so you know, I started my show originally in a studio with a person sitting either next to me or in front of me, and we had the cameras set up and it was fun. And so, with COVID, you know, when that kind of came into place, everything shifted and so we sort of kind of found ourselves back locked at home and then I realized, hey, we can do podcasting so easily from the comfort of our own home, and so, for our audience, that's where we're at. We're in Maureen's home today doing this podcast. So this is going to be a lot of fun and I'm excited to hear about your journey and what you're doing and all that good stuff Awesome. So let's start this thing. I want to know about your journey. I want to know what has brought you to this place you are today, to creating this podcast and this passion that you have for helping women?

Maureen Jirikowic:

Yes, thank you, jen. So I am Maureen Jerichoic, like Jen said, and I am creating a podcast called Widow Talk, and through my journey I learned a lot about transformation. And so through that journey, my husband, pete, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2021. And through that journey, we did a process of holistic medicine as well as Western medicine.

Jennifer Loehding:

And, unfortunately, his life ended in October of 2023. And so I have been on this journey of healing. And's through that that you come out on the other side and in your case, yeah, you have this passion, like you've been helping women for a very long time, do great things, right, and now you're still moving into that space, but just in a different segment of your life.

Maureen Jirikowic:

Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

So it's good. So I would love to know, like with this podcast, you know, like what's kind of the big? It's obviously about helping women and titles. I mean, do we have a name yet? I guess maybe we might start there. Do we have a name where we're leaning into this? Maybe we need to share this with our audience so they have to look for yes, yes, it is titled Widow Talk. Yeah, and what's going to be some of the things that you are wanting to share on this show to inspire these women to really connect with others, right, but also kind of recreate their life in this new place that they are?

Maureen Jirikowic:

Yes, well, as you go through grief, there's so many different stages. There's denial, there's anger, there's bargaining, there's depression and then there's acceptance, and the processes can go in all different directions. One day you might be angry, another day you might be, you know, accepting the situation, and then a trigger happens and you're back at the frustration part. And so I want to help people with support systems, with working in their community, with building their own self, transforming their own life, finding new opportunities, creating new places for you to go, for you to seek other women's support. It's basically starting over. Really is what it is, and that's been my journey.

Maureen Jirikowic:

I've changed and transformed every single area of my life, so, emotionally, physically, sometimes people see me at this stage and they're like I didn't even recognize that was you. So that sounds really crazy, doesn't it? Because that's a pretty big transformation. But it's really about the inner core, about really working on yourself. But it's really about the inner core, about really working on yourself, your heart and the ability to move forward and move forward from the loss and the grief and to know that God has something bigger out there for you. And so it's for everyone who wants to take that personal responsibility to really go through the different stages and go through them effectively, and there's no timeline for this. Everybody's grief stage is different.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah, that's the thing about it. You mentioned something in all of that about support systems, and I know that's something you're trying to set up. I'd love to know, like for you, like what were some of the things that you did to maybe work through some of this.

Maureen Jirikowic:

Yes, well, the first thing I did is one thing that a lot of people had shared with me, for advice was do not make any big decisions in the first year, and I love my house, and so what I did with my house is I just changed it around. I wanted a place of peace and serenity, so the colors are created for happiness and peacefulness, so that when I walk into my little coffee area, nook area, it's got a desk and it has teacup and it's girly, because I live alone now, so it's good. I love that space and my living room is a tranquil, peaceful place to be. I changed out bedroom linen, got new pictures, so you can do this in a very economical way. It doesn't have to be that you, you know, take out all your furniture, but yet you can create a space that signifies you, and so that was the first thing that I did.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and you're talking. When you talk about not making big decisions, I think that I mean even in that here, but in a lot of things in life, right, Like not making big decisions in the moment of crisis, right, yeah, and I think a lot of times we we panic, right, and I've always kind of adopted that too, that you know, I haven't been through what you've been through, but I've always sort of adopted that in the middle of a crisis, whatever that be just to pause for a moment, right, and make sure that you're thinking clearly when you do that. But I love that you were talking about like sort of redecorating your house and, interestingly, you know, I had nothing I'd never like to diminish anybody's story but I had a pet that tragically died. Like I woke up that tragically did not die, and it was weird because the room that they he had been staying it was a little cat, He'd been staying in there.

Jennifer Loehding:

I immediately, you know, within a couple of days, went in there and decided to redecorate that room like kind of make it like a spiral. I bought these cute little gray star curtains that are you're going to love it Totally girly. They got little star cutouts on them, you know, and I fixed up the futon in there and so it was just sort of kind of a way of brightening things up right and changing what was going on in there without making that big decision Right, Like we're not going to go up by, only furniture to the house down. Right, we paint down the walls. If we can't do that, you know. So I think that's a good point that you made there, really about just pausing before you do something drastic and do something small that you can do to kind of put you in motion.

Maureen Jirikowic:

A year and a half in to being a widow and I had just this spark of energy that came across me and I said you know what it's time. So I cleaned out a closet that used to be my husband, pete, and then I also cleaned out a bedroom and I have a resource that gives a friend of mine who gives a lot to homeless. She finds a source for everything. I mean, I changed my dog food and she's like you know, she took the old dog food and gave it to a dog that needed it. No, and I mean so that made me feel good because as I was going through it, I knew that these pieces were, they were just possessions, right, it didn't take away the memory of him, it was just a way for me to, as you said, go through the healing process and get to the next level. So there's different levels of that grief that you go through, and just doing that just made a difference in my energy, in my spirit.

Maureen Jirikowic:

There were some sad times. I mean, I saw a couple, you know, like his favorite shirt and certain things like that, and it brought a little tear. But I also was like you know what. I know that he wants me to move forward, and so now I have a closet for winter and I have a closet for summer and so before the closet was closed and I couldn't even look in there, but I, step by step, I would open the closet and take one step closer to getting to that decluttering stage. So it's not totally complete, but you know what? Every inch matters. It's kind of like atomic habits when you do those little things to get to the end. There's still a couple pieces of his that are in there and I'm okay with that. They're intermingled in my clothes and that brings me some comfort. But the whole closet isn't full of this stuff anymore. Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's good, well, and there's power in decluttering. I do hear it. Whether you're in a crisis or not, I think there's a freeness that comes with just cleaning things up right. It gives you space to move. I'm with you on that.

Jennifer Loehding:

I'm all about the decluttering and I feel like there's been times where I've had those moments where I've been like I'm just going to go in, I'm going to clean a closet out, and then I do it and I'm like wow, like I feel so good afterwards I find things like you know, last closet I cleaned out, I found an umbrella. Like I didn't like we're always looking for umbrellas, right. Like I'm like I don't have an umbrella and I go in and I'm like where's this umbrella even come from? It was a nice one, you know. So you might find things in doing that.

Jennifer Loehding:

But I agree with you on that. It's sometimes that it can be very therapeutic, especially if you're going through something, you know, like this. And so I admire you because I think I've known other people that have gone through this kind of grief and it's a hard thing to move. But you're doing incredible and you've done well in your work and you're on the other side is outside of the podcast. You've done really well in that, and so I think there's a lot to this. I mean a lot that you've had to do to overcome and move forward, and you're doing it in a way that now you can really help more people, absolutely so good stuff, Absolutely yeah good stuff.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I'd love to know, like, how the community I was looking at your notes here. She gave me some really good notes for my, for our listeners what are they doing here? She gave me really good notes. I'm trying to read them and keep up here, but I'm like, oh my gosh, I got all these questions. I want to ask.

Jennifer Loehding:

So, maybe for somebody who I want to talk about your work in a minute too, but I know the big thing is that we're working on this podcast that you're trying to get out and really, you know, focusing on that, and and for anybody that's, you know, wanting to try to do a podcast, this is it's like anything we do, right, like it's it's starting something new and stepping out in your comfort zone, outside of your comfort zone, right, you've been doing this for a long time in your career. You've been doing it for a long time, and so I want to know, like, what do you feel? Like? And you and I know, because we've taught, but they don't know, see, they don't know because we're telling them now Like, and you and I know, because we've taught, but they don't know.

Jennifer Loehding:

See, they don't know because we're telling them now, what do you feel like has been maybe some of the challenges with getting this podcast up and running. What have been some of the things that you feel like you're having to work through, because somebody listening to this may be going on the brink of doing something like this, starting something new or working through whole process of grief in some way, but there might be before it and you talked about stepping, you know, forward, decluttering but what have been some of the maybe the challenges you've got with this podcast?

Maureen Jirikowic:

Well it's, you know, technology that's a lot of technology, right. And you know I I mean it's uh, just just sitting down and doing it and sharing my heart. And I did do an interview with um another uh podcast interview and you know I wasn't ready at that time. I emotionally, it was still such a painful time for me that there was crying, and crying is good. So if you're a widow or you've gone through a divorce or you've done something, you are going to be grieving that time and to give yourself the time.

Maureen Jirikowic:

And you know, jen and I have a lot of the same personality characteristics. It's like we want to get the job done right, but you also have to take the time to heal, and tears are healing and there's times where I have just lost it in my car. There's times that I'll pick up a piece of paper and that triggers something and to just honor that and allow yourself. The first year is a year that the best way to describe it, jen, is where you're sitting here and the world is just going around you and you can't. You're like stunned, with no place to really go, and you have to.

Maureen Jirikowic:

What I learned about myself in that process is I had to just sit there in a chair and just stare and let myself grieve and not try to stop it and not try to push it, because you know we want this agenda done or we have our to-do list and let's get it done. How come I can't do it? You know, and I had to just. And so the same thing with starting something new like a podcast you're going to have those growing pains. You're not always going to show up where you feel like it's a stellar performance, right. Yeah, you're going to feel like, oh, I could have said this or I should have said this, or whatever. But the best thing to do is just what I have found is just get yourself into it, just try it, do it. If it's not you, you don't have to keep doing it, but if it is and it helps others, you've made a big difference.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love that and thank you for saying that. You know it's interesting. I did an interview yesterday and I was interviewing a guy that became a runner. He actually is a funny story. They're going to hear this story. It's great you guys are going to get to hear this story, but I'm going to give you a precursor to it, or maybe we're hearing this afterwards and so you'll have the story. But he became a runner because he had won this hot dog contest and they'd gotten this ice cream and then he got on the scale and didn't like the number he was seeing. Wife had, I think, baby number four, I don't know. They had another baby and so he decided he was going to pick up running because he didn't want to have a dad boy.

Jennifer Loehding:

But the thing he was talking about is this just one step at a time thing is I asked him about, like mindset, I'm also a former runner. My husband was an endurance athlete, so we've done a lot of that in our time. But there was this universal thing Both of you have said this, this you know one foot forward thing and universal thing Both of you have said this, this, you know one foot forward thing. And so, as we're talking about, like this podcast, and going through the grief process. You know, I would say there's a lot of parallels in life, right, like they show up in different areas, but the processes can be very similar. So, like you lose something, you know you lose your job that could be a grieving process. You lose a pet could be a grieving process. Everybody goes through these different parts of this, right, and it's really like you're saying just about stepping one foot in front of the other. And it's no different when we're starting a new life, a new career, a new passion project, whatever it is. It's still that one step forward, right, it's being brave and taking it forward.

Jennifer Loehding:

And so I also love that you mentioned the technology because, yes, technology. Well, I had the podcast episode that we released this. You know, by the time this one comes out, it'll have been out for probably a couple of weeks, but he was a tech guy and it was so funny because I went into this thinking, oh my gosh, 35 year veteran in the tech space, I know little to nothing about tech. I am not going to walk in and be like I'm tech because I am not. If something's broken, I need to call my son to help me. We got the camera working today. We're good, the audio we're good. Anything else breaks, I don't know we stop. So I love it, I love it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, this is awesome, maureen, and I would love to talk, you know, talk about some of like the mindset that you do because you're a top you know, top 2% leader in the company that you're in. You've been doing this for a while. I don't want to get into all the specifics of that, but I'd really just love to know, like, how do you set yourself up for success? Because you have, you're moving these parts in your life like you're still doing it, like you're on the other side of this loss now and you're doing it. You're still having systems in place. So what are some things that you do, aside from like the decluttering and mixing up the walls to make it lively, the other things that you do in your life to help support you?

Maureen Jirikowic:

in your journey.

Maureen Jirikowic:

Well, I start my day with meditation, prayer affirmation and a little bit of physical exercise, and I like to get outside when the sun first comes up, because that natural sunlight in your eyes and on your skin is so very healthy for you.

Maureen Jirikowic:

And so I went through a period where I was like getting up super early and I would get all that done before seven o'clock, and then some of the grieving came through and so, no matter what time I got up, I would still take those steps, because I feel like if you set yourself up for success in the morning and give yourself that time, you show up differently. And so I have just been practicing that and so, whether it takes me, sometimes I feel like I need to do more than one meditation in the morning and I just honor that and do that so I really listen to my heart and listen to what do I need today, what is it that I need? And I listen for that through meditation and quiet time. Silence is I silence this heart sometimes because there's always a squirrel right and we always have these distractions, and I have a little dog and sometimes he wants extra love and he's jumping on my lap and my eyes are closed and I'm like, oh man, he isn't.

Jennifer Loehding:

No, that was so great, that's so great and I'm with you on that. I think those morning routines are so important. It really sets the day for how you do everything and you know it's so weird. I don't know about you, but I wasn't always like that. I don't think any of us always like that right, like we get these practices in place, but it was. It's like a building process right.

Jennifer Loehding:

I mean it takes time and I do a lot of those things that you're talking about as well, but it's like it wasn't like I just woke up and all of those systems were in place. It was really just about doing something and then adding and then compounding, and I love that. You said you know, during that time when you were going through the grief, you continued to do those things because I mean it could have been the other way. It could have been. You got stuck in that and just really could you know work, had a hard time working yourself out, but you stayed connected to those practices and I think that that's. I think it's admirable.

Maureen Jirikowic:

Yeah Well, I just think you have to honor yourself and honor and know that. This is where I need to be right now and I know there's a big, long list of things that I should be doing, should be. But what do I need to do to really fill my spirit so I can show up powerfully in my own self? And that's what I would radiate out to the world is, when you do the inner work, it shows in the outer work, and so a lot of times people have seen me and people used to ask how are you that pitiful? How are you Right? Oh, great, I'm great. You know, inside I wasn't always, but I never wanted to position myself. I will, you know. You do need to have your support system and have the people around you who you can call during those times, but not everybody is going to be that person for you.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's a good yeah, we talked about that, right, like I was talking about that yesterday with somebody you are really like with the five, some people you hang around with, and so we were talking about running. So I'm like, hey, if you want to be a better runner, you need to find runners that are better than you to hang around. And so I do believe in support systems. I think that it's very instrumental in helping people. You know, whether it's grief or if it's in a business side, whatever it is to get to that next place they need to be. So, yeah for sharing. And I do want to say, like I don't know, we. You know, I showed up at her house today and somehow we color coordinated without coordinating. She's got this cute hat on and I'm like I showed up in this red dress today because I was going to go do network or something today, and then I get here and I'm like, hey, we like got this whole color coordinating thing down, right, awesome stuff, so fun.

Jennifer Loehding:

So you said so many great things here, marie. I want to know, like you mentioned earlier, about what you've learned about yourself, but I would like to know, like, what advice you would give to your younger self, I mean, given where you are today, you have incredible tenacity and persistence, leadership all of the things that we really like to talk about. On Starter Girls, what would you say to yourself? You know, maybe the 18-year-old Marie that's just stepping out into the world. I don't know what I was thinking at that time. Yeah, I was thinking how I was going to conquer the world time I was thinking how I was going to conquer the world.

Maureen Jirikowic:

Yeah Well, I would second what you said about aligning yourself with the right people. And so when you're 18, 20, even 30, you know you're still finding yourself, you're finding who you are. What do you? You know what's your purpose in life, and to align yourself with the right people and the right timing, and you know. The other thing that I listened to earlier that I wanted to say is you know, sometimes we attract people that are irritating to us, and those are the people that we need in our lives, because they're there to teach us something. And so if you have those people in your life, they could be people that you may need to separate yourself from, but that might also be a wake-up call to you to say what is in me that I need to work on personally. Yeah, that's good that is good.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, so we all have those. They do teach us things and that is important, so thank you for sharing that. I love it. Maureen, I think you're doing great things. I'm excited to see where this podcast goes. Do we have kind of a day when we're going to get this like officially launched so people know to find you?

Maureen Jirikowic:

Yes, we are going to launch it this month, so I would say around by the 15th it should be ready to roll out. So, and we'll have all kinds of different topics of you know, support system, community, how to navigate through finances, how to navigate through new relationships. That's a big one. You know people, you know when you're a couple for so long. And my husband, pete, and I this was a second marriage for both of us, and so we did everything together because when we found each other, we had both been single parents for 10 years, so we were both ready. We were ready for something, you know, for that to happen, and so, you know, he was into hunting and fishing and doing all that stuff and it just we evolved together and so we did everything together and those were things he said and I said to him go go on a fishing trip, do this. And he was like together, and those were things he said and I said to him go go on a fishing trip, do this. And he was like I would rather. You know we navigated together, we did.

Maureen Jirikowic:

We moved to Texas in 2018 from the Midwest and so we were exploring all the different new opportunities that were available to us here and that's how we, that's how we roll. So you know new relationships. So we had couple friends and now being single, I want to just address the topics of relationships where you might not be included anymore in the couple relationships you might need to navigate on what kind of girl tribe do you want? What kind of friends do you want? So the possibilities are so new and fresh, but it's also scary to navigate through those. So some great topics to just explore as a new widow.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah, no, and that's good. I didn't even think about that, but you're right, it's adapting. I think that's the big word here. Is adapting Like you're helping them adapt to their new scene, their new world, right, which is what we're doing all the time in life anyways. Is adapting right? Nothing stays the same, ever Nothing stays the same and it's hard.

Maureen Jirikowic:

It's hard to navigate those things on your own. I've seen widows rise and I've also seen widows who just stayed in such a state of devastation, and so I hope that this podcast will be a revival, that they'll hear one thing and take it and say you know what? I'm going to go to a new restaurant, I'm going to try this. Or I'm going to pick up tennis and I don't know who my partner will be, but I'm going to pick it up because that's what I love to play, you know, or whatever it is. So it's really, it's a changing of the mindset and it takes time. It takes work.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, well, you're definitely setting things in a marine and I appreciate you coming on here and being vulnerable and authentic and sharing your story. We're excited to see what this podcast does, and that's why we're doing this episode here today a little bit different than we normally do, because we wanted to allow Maureen, my new friend, wanted to allow her an opportunity to well, a couple of things. One, we're going to get her to get this podcast out, that's, we're going to get her to get up, but also to come on here and share what she's doing, because everybody that's you know, hopefully, I would assume most of the people that are tuning into this are people that are either, in some way, they're leaders or creators. They're doing something where these stories are hopefully inspiring them to do other great things, and so I'm sure your story is going to be something, you know, for somebody that's going to resonate and they're going to find value in.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you, how do people get in touch with you? They want to get in touch with you. Do they have a? Do you have a? I guess you got to get the website set up for this, hopefully. So maybe by the time we get this set out to go, we'll have a website, or at least a YouTube, where we can direct them to go check out the podcast. So we'll, we'll make that the deal here. We're going to get her contact information in there and so, of course, to you guys that are tuning in, know we appreciate you, we love you, we hope that you found this episode fun. It's a little different, Inspiring all the things. And if you do, of course, do all the things, hit the like, share, subscribe, comment, do whatever, so we can keep sharing all this fabulous content. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another and we will see you next time. Thank you.

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