• A Healing Heart
    Nov 6 2024
    Nichole Lee had a successful career as a business consultant, traveling the world and supporting change makers on a global level. When her mother died she continued to work just as hard, despite her grief and the global COVID pandemic isolating her in her home. Then one day she heard a whisper, in her mother's voice, telling her to quit her job! In an act of courage and wisdom, she listened, leading her to a life's calling she had never imagined. Join us to hear how she traveled the road to the life she lives today.
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    1 hr
  • The Widow's Crayon Box
    Oct 30 2024
    When Molly Peacock's husband died, poetry supported her grief. Already a published poet with several books, she captured her experience of grief, navigating the twists and turns through creative expression. Some grievers rely on the skills they already have and some must learn new ways of being. But even for those of us who continue to do what we did before, the way we do those things is often profoundly changed. What changed in Molly Peacock when she faced deep loss? Join us to talk about her poetry, grief, and how we go forward without the one we love the most.
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    1 hr
  • Lamenting While Doing Laps in the Lake
    Oct 23 2024
    How does loss become poetry? Bill Ratner's losses lived in the depths of his soul and over time, found expression. Creativity can help us to move grief through us, transforming the shape of it. What was that process for Bill? What moved him to put words to his losses? Every griever wants to be heard, but capturing grief in language is challenging. Join us to learn how Bill was able to embody his experience through his writing.
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    1 hr
  • How Children Grieve
    Oct 16 2024
    Corinne Masur's father died suddenly when she was just fourteen. When grief came into a family that had no idea how to talk about it, they mostly didn't. Corinne went on to become a psychologist, writing what she came to call a MEsearch thesis on children's grief. Turning that early, confounding loss into a life's calling, she supports families struggling with the same difficult questions her family faced. Author of two outstanding books on children's grief, Corinne joins us to share her wisdom on how to support children in loss of all kinds.
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    1 hr
  • Stay
    Oct 9 2024
    If you grow up, as Julie Fingersh did, convinced you shouldn't share the family secrets, that all that messy stuff is private, how do you cope when those secrets begin to undermine your life? How do you come to terms with being unable to contain them any more? In facing up to the truth of the challenges faced by her family; mental health and chronic illnesses, loss and difficulty, Julie found that finally sharing those secrets gave her a way forward. Her memoir, Stay: A Story of Family, Love and Other Traumas, pulls back the curtain on her family secrets, kept locked away for so long. Join us as we talk about what finally led her to open up and share her story. And what did that lead to?
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    1 hr
  • I Will Do Better
    Oct 2 2024
    Charles Bock's wife always wanted to be a mother and, just a bit reluctantly, he agreed to have a child. But within a few years his wife died of cancer and he was now tasked with navigating parenting a very small child on his own. Ultimately determined to do the best he could, and to continue to do better, pushed him forward one tiny step at a time. Looking back on that time, what made his path nearly impossible to walk? What helped? And what did he learn about himself, that small child, and life?
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    1 hr
  • Death Over Drafts
    Sep 25 2024
    After helping to get the Medical Aid in Dying Act passed in California and then supporting its implementation, Stefanie Elkin's passion for working in end of life only grew. When she left her job at Compassion and Choices she opened her own company, Be Present Care, to support end of life, especially for elders, and to open up conversations about how to navigate dying. She then began traveling far and wide to host Death Over Drafts gatherings, pairing her love of draft beer with her love of talking about death. Her passion moved forward to a life calling!
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    1 hr
  • Make a Home Out of You
    Sep 18 2024
    Ginelle Testa's early life with a drug dealer father and an angry mother led to just the kinds of struggles you might predict. She began the relationship with drugs and alcohol that would lead to several bottoms. She experienced anorexia and sexual assault. She looked to other people to validate her worth. Getting clean and sober was just the beginning of a long search for herself that led, over time, to true healing. Join us as we talk about what helped her to find herself amid her struggles and how she came to believe her story needed to be shared!
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    1 hr