April's Guests Discussing Apps - Donor Families and More......

Who can believe May already! Well, the snow is gone, now will it ever stop raining? Glorious May flowers next I believe. I truly believe the weather or rather the seasons can teach us a lot about grief. The landscape changes during the winter months, the trees are bare, plants are dormant all the leaves and foliage decompose and become nutrients for the soil for future growth to enjoy. Spring arrives along with signs of life once more. Summer heralds in full bloom and lushness of colour abounds. Fall and the landscape turns orange with fire reds a final burst of colour before the bleakness of winter returns.

Grief enters, the familiar landscape changes, and life feels devoid of any colour giving us time for mourning. Eventually, grief washes away old beliefs and ideas providing compost for new life and new ideas to emerge, eventually, there will be a fullness as the urge to move into the next phase arrives. Activity and laughter find their way replacing the pain and sadness. The sun will shine again and love with return. It was there all along behind the clouds of grief. A reminder of the impermanence of life.

April is Organ Donation Month so we began with this interview and added 5 more stories to share with our community!

Tara Storch - How to Outlive Yourself with Gifts of You & Donor Families Grief

Tara Storch. She shares how their daughter’s passing has changed her life’s trajectory in a significant way. From the five lives that her daughter saved through organ donation, Tara has taken that inspiration to start the national foundation, with her husband Todd. Taylor’s Gift is to create more awareness and help more people, and also to be there for donor families in their grief - a strange mix of grief and gratitude.

Here’s what we talk about:

• Have you ever thought about organ donation?
• Outliving yourself by saving other people through organ donation.?
• Experiencing grief and gratitude at the same time.
• The lack of dedicated grief support for donors.
• How the “rock” of the family feels during times of grief.?

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About Taylor’s Gift Foundation:

Taylor’s Gift Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that helps donor families receive the emotional support they need. Founded in 2010, Taylor’s Gift has a long-standing purpose of helping individuals and families walk their path of grief.

Click HERE to listen to our interview

Stacy Francis - Wisdom of Wealth for Widows and Women

Grief doesn’t always have to be directly related to death. In this episode, we speak with Stacy Francis who shared with us why so many women are not engaged with money? It’s 2023 – it’s time for women to make financial decisions independently. 80% of women will end up alone the stats show us.

Here’s what we talk about:

• A piece of history that contributes to the reason why many women are giving their power away when it comes to money.?
• Reasons WHY women need to have an understanding of money. Make it work for you!
• Facing the reality of financial abuse. What is it? What kinds of help are out there to deal with it?
• Developing the right mindset and system for setting yourself up financially.?
• The complexities between widowhood and finances.?

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About Stacy Francis:

Stacy Francis, CFP, CDFA, CES is the President and CEO of Francis Financial. Stacy is also the founder of the non-profit, Savvy LadiesTM which helps and provides resources to all women.?

She's a Certified Financial PlannerTM (CFP?), Certified Divorce Financial Analyst? (CDFA?), Certified Grief Recovery Specialist? and Certified Estate and Trust Specialist (CESTM) with over 20 years of experience in the financial industry. She is the host of the Financially Ever After podcast, and the author of Financial Help for Widows: A Complete Resource Guide as well as Unveiling the Unspoken Truth: The Financial Challenges Women Face During and After Divorce.

You can listen HERE to our interview to learn from Stacy as I did

Dr. Jennifer Kaplan - From Sibling Death to Service and Support

Our discussion was about sibling loss. We speak with Dr. Jennifer Kaplan as we look at it through her lens, a sister whose brother sadly died during her childhood. Her grief not only shaped her life, but it would also lead her into the field of social work and bereavement services.?As part of her doctoral thesis, she developed the Inventory of Youth Adaptation to Loss (IYAL), a strength-based outcome instrument, through her partnerships with dozens of children’s bereavement programs nationwide and in Canada.

Here’s what we talk about:

• Your grief doesn’t define you.
• The value that support groups provides for those who are grieving. They help normalize people with shared losses who are on the same journey.
• The ripple effects of an unexpected death. Do children really not grieve?

• Someone who’s passed can still be a significant part of our lives today.?
• The need for grief support in various aspects and levels of society.?

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About Dr. Jennifer

Jenny was awarded the second annual Excellence in Service Award at the 2018 Symposium for the National Alliance for Children’s Grief for her contributions to the field in both practice and research. She is the Founding Director of Jeff’s Place, FRIENDS WAY in Rhode Island, and the Founding Clinical Director of Experience Camps. Jenny has worked extensively with bereaved children, teens, and families in various settings over the past 25 years providing counseling, professional training and education, and crisis response.?

Jeff's Place is proud to be the lead organization for a two-year national research study to inform program development and implementation, policy development, and standards of prevention and care for youth experiencing traumatic loss.

To learn more about Dr. Kaplan's story please listen in HERE

Aly Bird - How to Support Grieving Loved Ones Better

In this episode we discuss the death of a spouse and how to cope when your world is turned upside down. Aly Bird , who's lived this experience, realized the importance of support from friends and family after her husband died tragically. To help her with her grief, she had to find the answers to the question - how do others manage who don't have support?

Here's what we talk about:

• Having a relatively positive "outlier experience" as a widow and stepping up for those who aren't getting enough support
• The need for communities to step up for grievers. Consistently be there for them!
• How do you do "perfect" grieving? Grief isn't just sadness, crying, and depression.
• Ways to properly support the person you're trying to help. Listening to them is vital?
• What does "cognitive grieving" mean? What are the other kinds of grieving?

About Aly Bird:

Aly's a coach, author, therapist-in-training, and a widow. My beloved’s death changed everything about me and my life. So much so, that I had to do something about how we treat the bereaved. So I defined Grief Allyship and wrote a book to teach people how to show up and support their grieving loved ones.

Your support can be comforting and healing to those grieving a loss, to help them feel less alone.

To learn more about how you can support listen HERE

To close out April, our conversation turned to practical matters. How often do we hear people grieving say "They wished they could hear their voice once more?" Well now you can create a timeline via an amazing App. Find out more in our interview. Darren & I met on Linkedin, chatted in Clubhouse and I finally caught up with him for an interview to continue our discussion on grief and modern technology.

Darren Evans - After Cloud, an App for Your Digital Legacy

How many times have you picked up an old photo with people in it that you have absolutely no idea who they are? Perhaps your parents or close relatives have died. And there’s no one in your family to ask. Thanks to technology, there’s a way – an app, to be exact, to get these answers. Our guest, Darren Evans , tells us more about the app After Cloud.?

Here’s what we talk about:

• How Darren got into creating After Cloud.
• How does After Cloud work?
• After Cloud’s social impact on its users.?
• The relationship of cognitive recall with music.

About Darren Evans:

Darren formed Dylogic 3 years ago following the lived experience of family bereavement and has since developed a suite of intuitive apps that are ORCHA registered under the After Cloud brand. The portfolio of four apps works across both Adults and Children’s services, Visitor Economy, and B2C landscapes. As a former Army Training Instructor, and having worked in technology since leaving, his expertise lies in innovation, digital transformation, and building effective teams, together with highly developed communication skills and the ability to communicate with enthusiasm, humility, and influence at all levels, creating an inclusive and engaging environment for people to thrive.

?Sound interesting you can listen HERE

Well thats a wrap, hope you enjoy May - I'll be back with a round of more amazing interviews and stories from those who have experienced and understand grief. If there's a grief topic you'd like to hear more on please let me know at [email protected] Please know you don't have to grieve alone, reach out, as a grief coach I'm happy to be there for you.