Mourning Meeting

On April 16, 2009, Kim Hamer watched her 44-yr-old husband take his last breath.  Their children were 12, 9, and 7 at the time.  While her husband had cancer and after he died, they were amazed and humbled by the creative and thoughtful ways their friends, family, and co-workers supported them. Kim started calling these kind actions “acts of love.”

All students have been impacted in some way from this pandemic. Most people associated with a college or university want to address the needs of both faculty and students, but innovation is hard! Well, meet Taylor Young, a senior at Penn State and the President of the College of Education Undergraduate Student Council. Learn how she, along with her peers, listened to the needs of students in her college and then created an original program to address these needs. This program can be duplicated in other schools so if you are looking for ideas about how to meet the social and emotional needs of your classmates, this is the episode for you!

This episode highlights some of the rituals and beliefs of certain American Indian tribes as told by Beccah O'Brien. Beccah lost her sister and father as a teen and young adult. Beccah graciously shares some of the little-known traditions of American Indians and explains the beliefs about death in this culture. She talks about what it was like to lose these most important people and how her culture provided both gifts and challenges for her. Beccah can be reached at [email protected].

Today's conversation is with Rebekah Saltzman, an organization expert who has recently written a book about organizing in a Jewish tradition for all of life's major milestones and events. Inspired by her mom after her death, Rebekah's original goal was to make sure all mourners (in the Jewish tradition, a "mourner" is either a parent, sibling or child of the deceased) understood the rituals and laws regarding mourning. She does not claim to be a scholar or rabbi, but she offers advice as a person who has recently lost her mother. She wishes a guide like this was available to her when she needed it so she created it, inspired by her own loss, to help others in the same faith. 

For more information reach out to Rebekah at www.organizedjewishlife.com, balaganbegone.com, or [email protected].

This week, I talk with Ian Wolf, the Coordinator of Student Conduct and a case manager for the Behavioral Intervention Team at Bergen County College in New Jersey. We talk about behavior as a means of communication and how we often look at behavior as good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate. Sometimes we forget that behavior is a function of our feelings and environments and if we take a deeper dive into that behavior we may find the need for support instead of discipline or punishment.  We also talk about the struggles of many college students to get the support they need through traditional systems and what other, less traditional options may be available. We touch on the need for teachers to get support in the midst of trying to provide so much to their students as well. 

To contact Ian for more information, email him at [email protected].

It's a very common phrase- often used to comfort someone who is in a terrible amount of pain after the death of a loved one. In today's episode, we examine this phrase more closely and consider the consequences of assuming the amount of grief you experience is diectly related to the amont of love you felt for the person that died. 

This episode was dedicated to Michael Siminoff and Nicole Pruess from the Retinger family. 

For more information, contact Mandi Zucker at [email protected] or 908-292-8039. 

This episode explores 10 different ways to include the people that have died into your holiday observances. From gift giving to holidays meals, self care and traditions, we cover it all in a short podcast episode with tons of practical tips to make these holidays less stressful, more inclusive and respectful of your grief. Please reach out to us at [email protected] or 908-292-8039 if you are looking for support or education.

As mentioned in the podcast, here is a blessing you may want to include in your holidays:

Memory Candles

Jesse and Rachel are both Child Life Specialists at The Cancer Support Community of Central New Jersey.  What is a Child Life Specialist, you may ask? If you don't know, it's likely because you have never had a child in the hospital.  But if you have, you have hopefully experienced the benefit of having someone talk to you and your children about their diagnosis. This week on the podcast, we talk about how to explain different diagnoses to children and why the language matters even as they get older. We also talk about how to maintain connection and support during the pandemic if someone dies. For more information, reach out to Jesse or Rachel at [email protected] or [email protected].