Jan Warner

When my husband died I thought I would miss him very much and be sad. i didn't know I would feel totally devastated. After the first chaotic year I needed to find meaning again in a life that seemed meaningless without him. I decided to honor him by being available to grieving people the way he, as a recovering alcoholic, was available to alcoholics and addicts. I started a blog and then the Facebook page Grief Speaks Out. My goal was to reach one person. I had no idea that the Facebook page would become a supportive community of over 2 million people from almost every country in the world. Now I have a written a book to be able to share my experience in how to be fully alive with grief. I believe that honoring grief is honoring love. I want my husband's life to matter more than his death but I will always grieve his loss. My goal was to have more productive moments and more joyous moments. I love being a grandmother. I have produced plays and documentary films. I love to travel around the world and have been to all seven continents. Even after nine years there are days when everything falls apart. I have a letter from my husband telling me how he watches me fall down and then get back up again. He writes that he loves me and is proud of me for this. I hope I am still making him proud. It seems impossible that I have lived on so long without him. Yet, within that impossibility, I have had many adventures I never could have imagined. What I have been told most often is that I articulate what other people are thinking and cannot find the words to say. Whatever brought you to this page, whatever you are feeling is exactly where you should be. Whatever changes you wish you could make, you can - but in your own time - when you are ready. Together we can find ways to have our grief inspire us rather than deaden us. I have a Master's in Counseling Degree and have studied NLP, Ericksonian hypnotherapy and Neo-Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. I have been doing my FB page www.Facebook.com/GriefSpeaksOut for over 5 years. It is humbling to think that I have created such a loving, supportive, international community for myself and fellow grievers. i hope Grief Day by Day will also be a loving support for grief warriors everywhere.