The Wisdom of Grieving Parents

Topic: SUPERGRIEF

The Peregrine Lodge: A Virtual Retreat for Grieving Parents & Others

PEREGRINE is a new universal term to describe a parent who has outlived their beloved child.

​Join us every 1st Sunday, promptly at 1PM PST, 4pm EST Hosted by The Lost Travelers Club, and moderated ​by LTC Founder Henry-Cameron Allen, CTAA, IHTCP Certified Grief & Survival Counselor, Author of The Lost Traveler's Field Guide. RSVP

As fellow griefwalkers we will share stories, hold space, and discover new ways to honor our loved ones and our sacred paths.

​This retreat provides:

• ​A supportive empathetic community for grieving parents
• ​Opportunities to share and be heard
• ​New ways to celebrate resilience and reignite purpose

​All are welcome in this inclusive space, regardless of ethnicity, faith, physical ability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

​Join us to connect, reimagine, and find purpose in our collective journey.

DONATE HERE TO SUPPORT THE LOST TRAVELERS CLUB: https://www.unitedcharitable.org/fsp_daf/the-lost-travelers-club/

Grief is a journey to be shared, and this monthly circle is a space for remembering, honoring, and finding comfort in community. Whether through photos, stories, or cherished heirlooms, we invite you to bring your memories into a space of connection and support.

Our monthly circle is grounded in care and compassion, offering a space where you are gently held, whether you join us once or return often. Here, all feelings are welcome, and every story matters. You are invited to engage in whatever way feels right—by sharing, listening, or taking quiet comfort in being with others who walk alongside you in your grief. You may choose to send a photo of your loved one to include in a shared collage, a reflection of the love that continues to connect us.

As End-of-Life Doulas, Lori and Meghan are dedicated to holding space for both the weight of the pain and the warmth of remembrance. In this circle, your grief is witnessed, your love is honored, and your story matters.

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/

@colincampbellwriter

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. 

https://michelledhord.com/

@mdhord

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. 

www.joyousocean.com

@dionnecmonsanto

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.

https://www.emotion-mc.org/

@weare_emotion

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. 

www.letsreimagine.org

@letsreimagine

As someone intimately acquainted with the place of Grief in my life I invite you to work with me to find the key to regaining peace, purpose and, yes, even JOY after loss. Not sure how? Let's talk! This workshop is an introduction to the way we are created to process Grief as a natural, sacred part of life. Just me and you, friends. You can come anonymously if you wish or you can be prepared to volunteer to work through one of your feelings around your Grief experience. You may also be surprised at how watching others can help you with your own situation. Grief may be as "unique as a fingerprint" (David Keller in "On Grief and Grieving") but the way through it is the same for all of us.

The only rule is LOVE.

If you want to know more about me check out my website:

www.findjoyingrief.com

Movement matters. The rhythmic tap of footfalls on the ground is a meditative practice that opens the mind, the heart and the soul, bringing us closer to what’s real and raw in us. Movement through the natural world is transformative. It is freeing, liberating and empowering. Moving is not a way to move from the hardest things; it is a way to move with them. Whatever your preferred form of movement is—walking, running, dancing, skipping, or jumping—some form of rhythmic, repetitive movement on a regular basis is essential to grief work. Dr. Bruce Perry’s groundbreaking insight into trauma-treatment informs our approach:  Patterned, repetitive, rhythmic experiences help regulate us; they help soothe and calm our stress response.

This virtual experience leans on the power of movement, community and ritual as core elements of our journey towards enhancing coping and building stamina to move with traumatic grief.

Together, we will engage in micro-rituals that introduce us to the power of patterned, repetitive, rhythmic activities in grief work. Our group will “try on” a sacred circle experience that integrates breathwork, swaying, and a simple, yet profound, naming practice that supports integration. We will practice a gently guided mindfulness exercise, and we will share “take-aways” for practice beyond our time together.

Myra’s workshop is an interactive, dynamic, and intimate experience that includes a combination of discussion, individual reflection, and movement-based exercises. The experience is bound to leave you with a sense of community, gratitude and inspiration. All bodies are welcome and all movement is gentle and optional. Please wear comfortable clothes and bring a paper and pen for engaging in reflection prompts. 

Myra Sack 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.

https://www.emotion-mc.org/

@weare_emotion

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. 

www.letsreimagine.org

@letsreimagine

Join Dr. Joanne Cacciatore and Joyal Mulheron – nationally-recognized champions for bereaved parents and other grievers – at the final session of this series. In this dialogue, Dr. Jo and Joyal will reflect on their experiences of grief and illuminate the power and purpose that comes with being an advocate for yourself and for others. The event culminates in peer-led breakout sessions, offering a space for shared reflection 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? (prompts courtesy of Nina Rodriguez, Grief and Light)

Dr. Joanne Cacciatore is a bereaved mother and the founder of the MISS Foundation, an international NGO that serves families whose children have died, and the Selah Carefarm, a sustainable restorative community that provides aid to anyone suffering traumatic grief. She is also a Professor and Senior Scholar in the Wrigley Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, spearheading the Graduate Certificate in Trauma and Bereavement. Her best selling book, Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief, is a national award winning best seller that has helped revolutionize the way our culture thinks, and feels, about grief. She works with and counsels families from all around the world who have experienced catastrophic deaths. She served on Oprah and Prince Harry’s Mental Health Advisory Board for several years and was featured in their docuseries ‘The Me You Can’t See.” Dr. Jo, believing that current practices around food production are a social, ethical, and environmental justice issue, is a vegan and hasn’t eaten meat since 1972.  She also teaches meditation, mindfulness, and compassion and ahimsa practices to students and clients from around the world. 

https://www.missfoundation.org/

https://www.centerforlossandtrauma.com/

@grief_doctor

Joyal Mulheron serves as Executive Director of Evermore, dedicated to making the world a more livable place for bereaved people. She spent twenty-five years advising high-ranking politicians, including governors and The White House, and translating basic science into public policy. She has enjoyed leading significant initiatives for the National Governors Association, the National Academies of Science, and the American Cancer Society. Joyal holds a master’s in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and degrees in Biochemistry and English from Virginia Tech, as well as a minor in Chemistry. After a series of high-profile death events and the death of her daughter, Joyal founded Evermore to change policy, advance research, and improve the lives of all bereaved people.

evermore.org

@evermoreforall

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. 

www.letsreimagine.org

@letsreimagine

Grief is a journey to be shared, and this monthly circle is a space for remembering, honoring, and finding comfort in community. Whether through photos, stories, or cherished heirlooms, we invite you to bring your memories into a space of connection and support.

Our monthly circle is grounded in care and compassion, offering a space where you are gently held, whether you join us once or return often. Here, all feelings are welcome, and every story matters. You are invited to engage in whatever way feels right—by sharing, listening, or taking quiet comfort in being with others who walk alongside you in your grief. You may choose to send a photo of your loved one to include in a shared collage, a reflection of the love that continues to connect us.

As End-of-Life Doulas, Lori and Meghan are dedicated to holding space for both the weight of the pain and the warmth of remembrance. In this circle, your grief is witnessed, your love is honored, and your story matters.