Reimagine Virtual Candlelight Vigil with Dr. Tasha Faruqui & Colin Campbell
Reimagine has been hosting candlelight vigils since March 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to break down taboos and hold space for all that we've lost. This gathering features pediatrician Dr. Tasha Faruqui and her family (aka the Faruqui Five) in conversation with writer, filmmaker, and theater artist Colin Campbell.
Tasha is the author of the new memoir Keep Your Head Up: A Mother’s Story of Chasing Joy in the Face of Grief, a tale of one family's path to perseverance in the face of devastating odds. When author Tasha gave birth to her second daughter, Soraya, she knew immediately that something was wrong. Yet as years passed and every medical test for Soraya came back normal or inconclusive, Tasha began to realize that science doesn't always have the answers, and there are some issues in life that simply cannot be fixed. Yet, we can continue to find happy moments and celebrate the beauty of what we have.
This story gives a voice to parents and loved ones of terminally ill children, illuminating the way to comfort, community, and unbreakable hope. This book discusses terminal illness with raw honesty, demonstrating how families can provide transparency to life-limited children around a terminal diagnosis, comfort them when they are afraid of what comes next, and continue to embrace life despite ongoing challenges. With beautiful narration and a heartfelt perspective, Keep Your Head Up testifies to the true depth of familial love and the hard things we can endure with grace and resilience.
With similarities and differences vis à vis Tasha's experience, Colin Campbell's memoir, Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose, explores his journey through unimaginable grief. When Colin's two teenage children were killed by a drunk driver, he was thrown headlong into a grief so deep he felt he might lose his mind. He found much of the common wisdom about coping with loss—including the ideas that grieving is a private and mysterious process and that the pain is so great that “there are no words”—to be unhelpful. Campbell offers an alternative path for processing pain that is active and vocal and truly honors loved ones lost. Full of practical advice on how to survive in the aftermath of loss, Finding the Words teaches readers how to actively reach out to their community, perform mourning rituals, and find ways to express their grief, so they can live more fully while also holding their loved ones close. Campbell shines a light on a path forward through the darkness of grief.
Dr. Tasha Faruqui
Inspired by her father, a doctor and surgeon to an underserved rural community, Dr. Tasha Faruqui joined the National Health Service Corps following her graduation from medical school. Her plan was to take over her father’s practice once her commitment was complete, but this was diverted when her second daughter, Soraya, was born with a rare, little-known genetic disorder that remains largely a mystery thirteen years later. Tasha’s focus then shifted to pediatrics, with particular attention to advocacy and support for parents of medically complex children and those with a limited life expectancy. Today, she regularly brings her dynamic message of fierce and loving hope to medical students at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the top pediatric medical facility in the country, Make-A-Wish events, and her Instagram community. Her debut book is Keep Your Head Up: A Mother’s Story of Chasing Joy in the Face of Grief (Wiley, September 2025). Tasha was named a top doctor by Cincinnati Magazine in 2022, 2024, and 2025.
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/
Natalia Zukerman is a queer Jewish musician, painter, journalist, educator, cartoonist, trauma-informed yoga and meditation teacher, cultural diplomat, and community organizer. She has recorded 8 albums on her own and Willy Porter’s Weasel Records label, toured with and/or opened for Janis Ian, Ani DiFranco, Susan Werner, Melissa Ferrick, Glen Phillips, Richard Thompson, Shawn Colvin and Dar Williams to name a few. Natalia teaches songwriting privately, in workshops, at festivals and has been teaching an introduction to songwriting through Northeastern University in the summers. She is the arts editor and cartoonist at The Millerton News and Lakeville Journal, a contributing writer for Acoustic Guitar Magazine, a part-time caregiver for her mom, and a full-time mom to her dog, Georgie.
https://www.nataliazukerman.com/
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 in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and – at our own pace – actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
