Let’s Learn: The Wisdom of Grieving Parents
This is a digital event. You should receive information in your ticket or from the host about how to join online.
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This panel discussion for the series features some of the most articulate and passionate voices in grief advocacy and literacy. We’ll create a space to remember children – those with whom we share loving and complicated relationships – and to honor those who survive them.
Our guest speakers are bereaved parents who include writer, filmmaker, and theater artist Colin Campbell, author and coach Michelle Hord, mental health advocate and coach Dionne C. Monsanto, and author, advocate, and athlete Myra Sack.
The program includes ample time for Q&A.
Colin Campbell is a writer and director for theater and film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Seraglio, a short film he wrote and directed with his lovely and talented wife, Gail Lerner. He has taught Theater and/or Filmmaking at Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, Cal Poly Pomona University, and to incarcerated youth through The Unusual Suspects. His book, Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose was published by Penguin Random House in March of 2023. He wrote and performed a one person show titled, Grief: A One Man ShitShow which premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and then ran for a month in New York at Theatre Row. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and ModernLoss.com. He has been interviewed on dozens of podcasts, including Bari Weiss’ Honestly, Stephanie Wittels Wachs’ Last Day, the Dougy Center’s Grief Out Loud and Lisa Keefauver’s Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch. Most recently, he was a keynote speaker at The Compassionate Friends annual National Conference. He lives in Los Angeles and sometimes Joshua Tree with his wife Gail and the two teenagers they are in the process of adopting.
https://colincampbellauthor.com/
Michelle Hord is a media consultant, executive coach, published author and speaker. She has spent more than three decades in media and has worked with all of the major networks including shows like Good Morning America, The Talk, 48 Hours and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Michelle’s award winning memoir, The Other Side of Yet, was published in 2022. Her book tells of her grief journey of resilience in the face of tremendous personal loss. She lost her mother and maternal grandmother within months of each other in 1994. Her seven year old daughter, Gabrielle, was tragically murdered in 2017. She has been featured in O Magazine, The Tamron Hall Show, The Talk, GMA, Essence Magazine, MSNBC and others. Michelle founded a nonprofit, Gabrielle’s Wings, to honor the memory of her daughter. Gabrielle’s Wings serves a global community of elementary aged children through educational, recreational, and cultural engagement with partners on three continents.
Dionne C. Monsanto, Chief Joy Connector and Founder of Joyous Ocean LLC, connects people to their joy. As a bestselling author, coach, speaker, mental health advocate, and performer, she creates the space for her clients to safely realize their goals and build better versions of themselves. Dionne's belief is that we can collectively change the world if we each build a joy-filled healthy body to support the lives we want to live. In short Dionne helps people Live Life INjoy! With her support, her clients create their "right-size" bodies and lives. Dionne sits on the National Chapter Leadership Council for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and is an active volunteer with her local AFSP NYC Chapter as well. She is a native New Yorker but a global citizen and has been on TV, radio and in print. Her features include CBS, PBS, Essence and Time Magazine. She is a helper who loves cooking, music and laughter. She sees them all as moving meditations.
Myra Sack (moderator) is the author of "Fifty-Seven Fridays: Losing Our Daughter Finding Our Way," and founder and Executive Director of E-Motion, Inc. a nonprofit organization created to support community, movement and ritual to enhance coping and resilience. Myra's life changed when her older daughter, Havi, was diagnosed with a fatal neurodegenerative disease in December 2019. Havi died on January 20, 2021 of Tay-Sachs disease. Myra holds an MBA in Social Impact from Boston University, and graduated with a B.A. cum laude from Dartmouth College, where she captained the women's soccer team and earned All-America honors. She has devoted over a dozen years to youth serving nonprofits, including serving as Chief Program and Strategy Officer at Squashbusters, Inc. and leading program development across Latin America for Soccer Without Borders. A writer, speaker, and certified Compassionate Bereavement Care provider, Myra serves on the Board of the Courageous Parents Network and lives in Boston, MA with her husband Matt, their second daughter, Kaia, and son Ezra. Her writing has appeared in numerous national outlets including the Boston Globe Spotlight, Today.com, and Upworthy.
About the Series “The Wisdom of Grieving Parents: Living with Love and Loss”
Children who lose parents are “orphans”, but there’s no universal term in English for a father, mother, or guardian who outlives their child. Perhaps it’s an indication of how catastrophic this loss truly is. Often we say “there are no words” to express condolences to bereaved parents. But in fact, there ARE words you can offer and actions you can take for those in pain.
How do we as grieving parents lean into loss when our minds tell us to avoid and protect?
How can friends and family members show up for the bereaved along their never ending grief journey?
The series will explore child loss across all ages, from infancy to adolescence to adulthood. Many of the following topics include:
- The Lifelong Impact of Child Loss, particularly how one navigates grief when children of friends and family reach milestones and celebrate life-cycle events
- Complex Relationships: Addressing the added layers of grief when the relationship was complicated or estranged
- Redefining Family, Marriage, and Self: Navigating shifting family roles, particularly those of parents and other children
- Anticipated vs. Sudden Loss: Examining the differences between anticipated and sudden child loss and their respective grieving processes
- Stigmatized Loss: Addressing the unique grief experiences related to deaths by suicide, overdose, incarceration, and other circumstances associated with societal taboos.
A full discussion of perinatal loss or infertility merits a separate series in order to provide the focus that these grief experiences deserve.
Guest speakers—storytellers, authors, artists, scholars, and grief educators and activists—will provide practical tools and support. They will guide participants in maintaining connection with children through storytelling, movement, and ritual, finding strength alone and in community, and developing healthy coping mechanisms through mindfulness, creative expression, and the creation of legacy projects. We'll also explore the potential for growth and transformation in the aftermath of loss.
About Reimagine
Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together to create a more compassionate world. We support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
