There are some exciting things coming up on the Hallmark schedule, especially with the channel’s Christmas in July celebration getting underway. Emotions are sure to be running high, and not just the sweet ones that come with the cozy holiday romances. Brennan Elliott is back on Hallmark for the first time since his wife Camilla Row died last March, and he opened up about how he channeled that experience into his new movie.Brennan Elliott stars in A Castle of Our Own, which premiered on the 2026 TV schedule last weekend, and he was able to find a parallel between his character in the movie, Adam, and his own experiences. While Adam’s wife left him during construction of their supposed dream home, Elliott lost Camilla Row after a nine-year battle with gastric cancer. The circumstances may be different, but Elliott told People he related to Adam’s struggles:I was stuck also. It's tough to move forward when certain things happen to you, but you've got to keep plugging away. I feel like this is the next chapter of my life.Of course death and divorce aren’t the same, but there’s extreme loss and grief in both situations, and Brennan Elliott has worked hard to get to this point, where he feels like he can start moving forward.He’s not doing it alone, either. The Hallmark actor and Camilla Row share 13-year-old Liam and 11-year-old Luna, and Brennan Elliott pointed out the hidden blessings they’ve experienced over the past year or so, saying:We miss her, but she was in so much pain. She's at peace now, and we've had to rebuild. Grief doesn't have to be scary. Yes, it's painful, but it's really taught me a lot about a lot of things that I wouldn't have ever learned if I didn't go through it.To get through it, Brennan Elliott said he went to therapy, and it really took nearly a year of healing and feeling all of his emotions before he felt “calm and grounded” enough to really work through everything and talk about what he’d been through. With his wife being sick for so long, the actor admitted that he had lost a bit of himself, as he stressed over working enough to take care of his family, including their children and his wife's medical bills. Brennan Elliott said Camilla Row cautioned him against that exact thing, and he thinks she’d be really proud of where he is today:I've gone through the stages of grief. I'll always grieve her. I mean, she was my wife, the love my life, the mother of my children, but I can hear her in my head telling me, 'This is when your career's going to go and you're really going to be happy and fun.' ... Now I'm coming to set as a blank canvas. I'm really embracing and enjoying the process and the journey.I love that Brennan Elliott seems ready to embrace life, and he’ll undoubtedly have the support of his Hallmark family as he does. Elliott has starred in 10 Hallmark movies with Lacey Chabert, so naturally the two are very close. The actor even called Chabert a “soul sent from heaven,” revealing that she was there for his family in a big way during these tough past few years.Now that Brennan Elliott is back at work, maybe it won’t be too long before we get that 11th collaboration between the two! Either way, it’s wonderful that he’s sharing his story — through his movies and otherwise — proving that you can find joy in life after loss.If you missed A Castle of Our Own, it will re-air at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, June 30, on Hallmark and is available to stream on Hallmark+.