Janice Jernigan lost her sister Julie when she was 3 years old, and this major loss ignited a cascade of secondary losses. Janice lost the opportunity of sharing milestones with her sister, receiving advice from her growing up and even beauty tricks. Janice tried to hold on to her sister Julie through many ways, and it emerged in her relationships, and eventually in her body. These are some of the reasons she decided to write her book Opening Up to Grief: A Surviving Sibling's Journey with Loss and Love.

In this week's episode, Janice and Maya talk about how it was growing as an only child, knowing that she had an older sister, what was life for her while she moved through it without opening up to her grief or experiencing her grief journey, and how comparison can be the biggest thief of grief. They also talk about stories from Janice’s book in detail.

Episode sponsored by Janice Jernigan, author of Opening Up to Grief: A Surviving Sibling's Journey with Loss and Love.

Season 3 is brought to you by SibsForever.org, a virtual platform to commemorate and honor your sibling relationship. Create your free profile and start building beautiful commemorative web pages that can include photo and video galleries featuring you and your sibling.

In this episode I’m covering:

• Intro [00:00:00]

• Growing up with grief [00:02:37]

• Multiple losses when losing a sibling [00:12:12]

• Holding onto Julie [00:18:01]

• Janice’s grief manifesting [00:26:07]

• Life after high school [00:33:00]

• Releasing your grief [00:35:18]

• Comparing herself to her “perfect” sister [00:41:34]

• Grief showing up in her body [00:46:57] 

• Comparison, the thief of grief [00:59:11]

• Advice for parents of surviving siblings [01:04:58]

• Connecting over sunflowers [01:14:43]

For full episode show notes and transcript, click here 

Connect with Janice Jernigan

Instagram | @innertrailblazer | @janicejernigan

Janice’s Book | Opening Up to Grief: A Surviving Sibling's Journey with Loss and Love

 

Connect with Maya 

Website | The Surviving Siblings 

Instagram | @survivingsiblingspodcast | @mayaroffler 

TikTok | @survivingsiblingspodcast

Facebook Group | The Surviving Siblings Podcast

YouTube | The Surviving Siblings Podcast 

Patreon | The Surviving Siblings Podcast

Twitter | @survivingsibpod

✨Get The Surviving Siblings Guide HERE✨