Video

Karyn and Aidan – Supporting each other

Karyn and Aidan talk about how they supported each other and how they coped with John being hospitalized

Krista – “My way of helping others”

Krista talks about reducing the stigma. Krista continues to grieve the death of her son from opioid overdose.

Shannon – Losing is a life skill

Shannon shares about losing her husband to suicide, her parents and her father-in-law. She felt broken and to be able to take care of her kids and her self seemed overwhelming. It took someone telling her that you can heal from trauma to give her hope for healing.

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.

John Martin – Loss and Grief- Not Much Help

John talks about the importance of helping people in grief

Maureen – “Grief is a messy non-linear place”

Maureen explains how you wind your way through grief and that is normal.

Lynda – “Zoom and the importance of connecting”

Lynda discusses why it’s important to stay connected and how you can do it.

Murray – Giving space for grief in song writing class

Murray talks about song writing, death and making space

Teresa – Pierre’s legacy

Teresa shares the story of Pierre and how his medical needs required a move to a long term care facility. He declined very quickly when he was away from people he knew and the familiarity of his surroundings. His story motivated Community Living Dufferin to start providing supportive services and resources in order to have people stay in their home at their end of life.

Scott – Process and lyrics

Scott talks about his process with lyrics and how his song “So far away” was for his mother in law. Find the song at his website www.dotbmusic.ca

Michele – Advice to younger grieving self

Michele tells what advice she would give to her younger grieving self

Cara – Intellectual disabilities and advance planning

Cara explains that people living with intellectual disabilities are growing to older ages, much like the rest of the population. And as folks are aging what we’re seeing is the need for families more so than ever, to do some advanced planning for who will take over any caregiving decision making or where that person may live, what sort of support they may need and what that’s going to look like after the parents or the guardians die so that this doesn’t become a crisis situation.