Surviving a Sibling
A Look at Grief That’s Often Overlooked — February 2025
The grief of surviving a sibling is often a silent one. Referred to as "forgotten mourners," bereaved siblings are unable to fully express their grief when the focus shifts to parents or caregivers. They must navigate a complex emotional landscape with little acknowledgment or support.
Surviving a Sibling will touch on many of the following topics:
- The Lifelong Impact of Sibling Loss: Exploring grief experiences across all ages, from pre-natal loss to adulthood
- Complex Sibling Relationships: Addressing the added layers of grief when the relationship was complex or estranged
- Redefining Family and Self: Navigating shifting family roles and the impact on personal identity
- Anticipated vs. Sudden Loss: Examining the differences between anticipated and sudden sibling loss and their respective grieving processes
- Stigmatized Loss: Addressing the unique grief experiences related to deaths by suicide, overdose, incarceration, and other stigmatized circumstances
Our guest speakers—storytellers, authors, artists, podcasters, and grief educators—will provide practical tools and support for navigating the complexities of sibling loss. They'll guide us in maintaining connection with our siblings through storytelling and rituals, finding strength 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.
Upcoming Events
This panel discussion for the Surviving a Sibling series features some of the most articulate and passionate voices in the grief space to explore the unique and nuanced experience of sibling loss. We’ll create a space to remember brothers and sisters – those with whom we share loving and complicated relationships – and to honor the “forgotten mourners” themselves.
- How can we cultivate more empathy and understanding for those whose grief is so often under the radar?
- What are various kinds of projects – both private and public – that we can take up to honor the memory of our siblings?
Our guest speakers bring both professional expertise and personal experience to the topic of sibling loss. They include: Moira Khan, founder of Griefspan; Judy Lipson, author of Celebration of Sisters: It Is Never Too Late To Grieve; Annie Sklaver Orenstein, researcher and author of Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner's Guide to Grief; Grief educator and coach Dr. Julie Shaw; and moderator Nina Rodriguez, grief guide, founder and host of Grief and Light, a podcast and online community for grievers.
The program includes ample time for Q&A.
Moira Khan is originally from New Zealand, and now living in Madrid, Spain. She is the Owner and Founder of GriefSpan. After the loss of her parents and brother in a 5 year span, Moira became a Certified Grief Educator. She now helps and supports grieving individuals and groups all over the world through the most heartbreaking times of their lives. Grief Education enables grievers to process their grief in a safe space, while learning more about best practices and tools to help navigate the journey they never asked to be on.
Judy Lipson is the author of Celebration of Sisters: It Is Never Too Late To Grieve, winner of the Literary Titan’s 2021 Silver Award. The sole survivor of three sisters, Judy founded Celebration of Sisters, an annual ice-skating fundraiser to commemorate the lives and memories of her beloved sisters Margie and Jane to benefit Massachusetts General Hospital’s Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program. Judy has shared her experience of losing two sisters at the Bereaved Parents of the USA Conference, The Compassionate Friends National Conference, Open to Hope TV, as a board member of the COPE Foundation, and previously as a Reimagine speaker. She received the 2020 Get Up Award from the U.S. Figure Skating Association for her resilience on and off the ice.
Celebration of Sisters: It Is Never Too Late To Grieve
Annie Sklaver Orenstein is a qualitative researcher, oral historian, and storyteller who has spent over a decade collecting stories from people around the world. Annie’s brother was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. Her debut book, Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner's Guide to Grief (Hachette Go, 2024) came about because she searched for guides to work through her grief as a mourning sibling and found nothing.
Her work has been featured on NBC Nightly News, Comedy Central, Huffington Post, Politico, TIME, and Mother.ly. In 2020, driven by a desire to share these stories beyond the walls of corporate America, Annie founded Dispatch from Daybreak, a collection of letters written by womxn to their earlier selves. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, children, dog, and chickens.
https://www.annieorenstein.com/
Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner's Guide to Grief
Dr. Julie Shaw (she/her) is an educator, grief wellness advocate, and experienced griever. Dr. Shaw is committed to building an inclusive community of grievers who are curious, ready to explore and moved to find ways they can integrate grief into their lives and continue to thrive. She is the founder of Hello I‘m Grieving, a community where grievers can find support and motivation through creative thought provoking in person and virtual events. Dr. Shaw has her doctorate in Leadership and is the co-founder of Lead Different Consulting where she works with global leaders in diverse industries and facilitates sessions on leadership development, DEI, and grief education. As a grief expert, Dr. Shaw has spoken on panel alongside David Kessler, contributed to the Empathy.com Cost of Dying Report, serves as a guest expert for HelpTexts, and her story is featured in the grief documentary Meet Me Where I Am.
Nina Rodriguez (moderator) created the Grief and Light Podcast after the sudden and unexpected loss of her only sibling, Yosef, as an authentic exploration of grief and life after loss. Through each conversation, she aims to give a voice to the griever’s experience, and foster a more grief-informed, hopeful world. Beyond the podcast, Nina extends her heart-centered support through The Community, monthly circles, 1:1 grief tending sessions, speaking engagements, active presence on social media, and forthcoming in-person retreats. She has been featured in various publications and podcasts, regularly contributes to Get Griefy Magazine, co-authored Resilient A.F.: Stories of Resilience (2025), and completed the Grief Care Professional Certificate Program under renowned psychotherapist and best-selling author of It's OK That You're Not OK, Megan Devine.
https://www.griefandlight.com/
About the Series “Surviving a Sibling”
The "Surviving a Sibling" series, presented by Reimagine in February 2025, offers a vital space for understanding and supporting the often-overlooked grief of bereaved brothers and sisters. Known as "forgotten mourners," siblings often find their grief minimized after a family loss, as attention naturally focuses on parents and other close relatives. This three-part series aims to change that, providing a platform for connection, healing, and education. Each session will explore different facets of sibling loss, from the lifelong impact across various ages and relationship dynamics to the unique challenges of sudden or stigmatized deaths. Through storytelling, expert guidance, movement, and facilitated discussions, the series will offer practical tools for navigating grief, maintaining connection with deceased siblings, and fostering growth and transformation.
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.
Type:
Talk, Panel, & Conversation,
When we suffer a loss / traumatic experience, our body shifts into survival mode often disconnecting us from the present moment; switching our nervous system into autopilot. This workshop explores the power of movement (in all forms) and its ability to build and restore our intuitive nature and access to choice; something that trauma disrupts. Eileen will guide participants through embodiment practices: gentle movements and nervous system regulation tools that allow individuals to feel what is present in their bodies and to build energetic discernment. While processing the devastating reality of losing her sister to suicide, Eileen realized that she had also lost her life's witness and a deeply grounding relationship that provided undeniable context surrounding her place in the world.
This workshop, "What Moves Us", is meant to hold and create space for the body to move whatever it needs to in order to restore a sense of safety, intimacy and empowerment. We’ll discover what motivates, drives and inspires both the individual and this unique group of survivors. After sibling loss, oftentimes our foundational beliefs, values and priorities are rocked to their core. What if instead of trying to "make sense" of the grieving process, we approached it somatically (as it relates to our body / as we relate to our body) and allowed ourselves to "sense" what is present now? "What moves Us” is both a question and a statement…an inquiry and an invitation as well as a realized outcome.
Note: This is not a therapy session. However, this workshop does provide a therapeutic atmosphere. All bodies are welcome. You do not need to be a dancer or mover to attend. If you have a body, this workshop is for you! All those seeking more somatic understanding, tools and resources surrounding sibling loss are welcome. Remember, chosen family counts too. Be sure to wear comfortable clothes you can move in. We will not be wearing shoes; you can go barefoot or bring some socks for added safety and comfort. Please also bring a pen and paper for a brief writing prompt and be sure the space you're in has enough room for you to extend your arms out to the side without bumping into anything.
Eileen Kielty (she/her) is a queer multi-disciplinary artist, teacher and performer as well as a clairsentient intuitive and movement alchemist and facilitator. She is the creator and founder of Kaia Evolutions, a culmination of her life’s work and a love letter to her sister, Katie, who died by suicide in June of 2019. Eileen has degrees in both dance and psychology as well as extensive training in somatic integration, embodiment and intimacy practices and is passionate about consent-driven spaces with an emphasis on social justice. She has been working with bodies for almost two decades and has held countless positions within the arts, fitness, wellness and educational spaces; presenting both in person and on virtual stages. She recognizes the importance of illuminating the darker, often hidden, parts of the human experience through sharing openly and authentically as we’re not meant to do this alone. Eileen believes in the power of creative expression and its ability to reveal the unspoken language of being alive; that the body always knows and that movement is our direct connection to our deepest truth.
https://www.kaiaevolutions.com/
About the Series “Surviving a Sibling”
The "Surviving a Sibling" series, presented by Reimagine in February 2025, offers a vital space for understanding and supporting the often-overlooked grief of bereaved brothers and sisters. Known as "forgotten mourners," siblings often find their grief minimized after a family loss, as attention naturally focuses on parents and other close relatives. This three-part series aims to change that, providing a platform for connection, healing, and education. Each session will explore different facets of sibling loss, from the lifelong impact across various ages and relationship dynamics to the unique challenges of sudden or stigmatized deaths. Through storytelling, expert guidance, movement, and facilitated discussions, the series will offer practical tools for navigating grief, maintaining connection with deceased siblings, and fostering growth and transformation.
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.
Type:
Workshop,
Join authors and educators David Martinez and Nico Slate for the final session of the Surviving a Sibling series. They will share insights from their memoirs about the enduring bond between brothers and how experiences like racism, addiction, and trauma can complicate grief.
The event culminates in peer-led breakout sessions, offering a space for shared reflection and practical support through the following guided prompts:
- Your grief has a wisdom of its own. It seeks to be expressed and witnessed. What does it want to say today?
- What is one thing you’ve been avoiding since your loss and what is one small, sweet step you can take to gently approach it?
- Think of an aspect of your grief that feels particularly heavy. What’s one tiny act of self-compassion you can offer yourself around that?
- Grief often shifts our priorities. Is there something new you’ve been curious about exploring or learning? What’s one small way you can start?
David Martinez
David Martinez’s debut memoir, Bones Worth Breaking (MCD, 2024) is a portrait of the unbreakable bond between brothers who were robbed of the chance to grow old together, and a reckoning with the brutal global forces that let so many poor young men of color fall perilously through the cracks. It is listed as one of the best memoirs of 2024 by Esquire. Library Journal’s starred review calls it “a powerfully honest memoir…visceral and emotionally aware…” and Publisher’s Weekly termed Martinez “a writer to watch.” He earned his MFA from UC Riverside Palm Desert and teaches English, Mythology, and Creative Writing at Paradise Valley Community College. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Brazil and has lived all over both countries as well as in Puerto Rico. He lives in Glendale, Arizona.
https://www.davidmmartinez.com/
Nico Slate
Nico Slate is Professor in the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of six books, including Brothers: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Race (Temple University Press, 2023), a book about the life and death of his older brother, a mixed-race hip-hop artist who was the victim of a racially-charged assault in Santa Monica, California in 1994. Nico is also the co-founder of LEAP, a program for low-income high school students interested in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Brothers: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Race
About the Series “Surviving a Sibling”
The "Surviving a Sibling" series, presented by Reimagine in February 2025, offers a vital space for understanding and supporting the often-overlooked grief of bereaved brothers and sisters. Known as "forgotten mourners," siblings often find their grief minimized after a family loss, as attention naturally focuses on parents and other close relatives. This three-part series aims to change that, providing a platform for connection, healing, and education. Each session will explore different facets of sibling loss, from the lifelong impact across various ages and relationship dynamics to the unique challenges of sudden or stigmatized deaths. Through storytelling, expert guidance, movement, and facilitated discussions, the series will offer practical tools for navigating grief, maintaining connection with deceased siblings, and fostering growth and transformation.
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.
