Death of a Parent

Hope – Different lenses

Hope shares about the differences in experiences between losing her father and her Mom losing a spouse

Katie – Reminders in nature

Katie talks about crying privately and how nature can help. Cardinals remind her of her father

Antoinetta – Things that are hard about school

Antoinetta shares about the challenges she faced when returning to school after her father died

Caileigh – Recommendations as a therapist and a griever

Caileigh discussed two recommendations for parents on how to support their child’s grief. as a therapist and a griever. The first is to recognize that being with is far more important than fixing. There’s two pieces to connection. The first being that one of the most important healing aspects to grief is feeling connected to others.

Maureen – “Unresolved conflicts”

Maureen shares about her Dad, anger, love and some tools to manage unresolved conflicts.

Matt – Grief changes

Matt explains how he deals with his grief. Matt continues to grieve the death of his birth mother.

Kim – It’s different during a pandemic

Kim talks about how the pandemic influenced how they were able to deal with her Mum’s death

Zoreena – Support systems

Zoreena explains the importance of support systems

Karyn and Aidan – Support from others

Karyn and Aidan discuss how family, friends, and people they didn’t know in the community supported them.Talking, meals, dog walking are among the things that made a huge difference.

Hope – Benefits of child-centred grief programs

Hope discusses hope grief camp gave her and her family a place to feel normal

Katie – My Story

Katie shares about her story and losing her Dad to cancer during COVID

The First Fathers’ Day Without Dad

When you lose a person in the generation before you, you begin to think about what they meant to you. When you lose a parent, you think about all they meant, and you hoped you either lived up to the best of yourself, or in some cases where the parenting was not as instructive or kind, you hope you’ve raised yourself beyond difficult circumstances.