Within a three-year span, my world completely crumbled: I lost my mother, my little brother, my husband. It was as if life had pulled the rug out from under me, and I found myself in a free fall.

Grief isn’t just sadness; it’s disorienting. You wake up each day feeling like you’re walking through fog, unsure if you’ll ever find your way out.

Here’s the thing: no amount of degrees or coaching experience could have prepared me for the depth of that grief. I had helped others through their darkest moments, but now, I was the one who needed saving. The grief hit me like a tidal wave, and for a while, I wasn’t sure I’d ever resurface. For months I struggled with pain, loneliness and, what I called laziness – lack of motivation to do anything. I felt so lost. I wondered what was left in life for me. I had no desire to move out of the cocoon I had built around myself.

As I slowly worked through it, I became clearer and clearer that I had no purpose, nothing to feed my soul. I did have a loving family who tried their best to support me and that was wonderful, but I realized that I needed to let them live their own lives and move forward with their own families. So, I began to put my education as a psychologist and years of coaching to use on myself.

I persisted with various tools and techniques until I came out the other side of grief and built my new life. It was in that moment of rebuilding that I truly stepped into my power. I realized that everything I had been through—the self-doubt, the caregiving, the losses—had prepared me for this. I had the tools, the knowledge, and the experience to not only help myself but to help others who were struggling to move forward in their own lives. For me, that realization wasn’t just about surviving grief; it was about finding a new purpose. I decided that I would help others do the same—to turn their grief, their struggles, and their self-doubt into stepping stones for something greater.

From this experience I was able to create a process that I came to believe would help others. The final “aha”, was fully realizing that all my life I had been acquiring the knowledge and skills I needed to build a structure that would ensure widows could redefine and rebuild their lives into sources of joy, fulfillment and purpose. I became passionate about helping as many widows as I could and it has become my purpose in life. I now work with groups and individuals, guiding them through their own journeys of reinvention. It’s not about erasing the pain or pretending it didn’t happen; it’s about using creating a life worth living.