grief
Happy, Healing and Healthy
The death of a parent is always a traumatic experience for anyone who has had to live through it. Those emotions are only compounded when you have had to witness that death first hand. Ginger Florey-Powell was only 9 years old when she and her brother survived the car accident that took their mother. She…
Read MoreThose Who Understand
When Ashley Thomas lost her mother she, like Kate’s Club founder Kate Atwood, she was only 13 years old. Being a young teenager is challenging enough during the best of times but can become incredibly difficult when you are missing one of your parents. Unfortunately, at that time there were no programs available for…
Read MoreFaith
Losing a member of your family is always a trying time in a person’s life. Often times, we have reason to expect that someone we love is soon to pass while other times it seems that they have been taken without explanation, and often too soon. For 16 year old Faith that is exactly the…
Read MoreTragedy Turned to Light
In 2003 Andi Stein wife and mother to two sons, Alec and Adam, lost her husband to bacterial meningitis. Along with taking her husband’s life it also took from her children any sense of growing up as a normal kid. Alec felt out of place in school, knowing that he must be the only…
Read MoreSerendipity and the Story of Giving Back
Sometimes things happen at just the right moment. For some of us that can be easily overlooked but for others the timing could not be more important. In 2004, Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva and her daughter, Gabrielle, had just returned to Atlanta from living in Washington, D.C. for a brief time. Dr. Spiva had suffered…
Read MoreThe Community at Work
Debra Brook was looking for a change to her professional life. Having spent 15 years as a recreation therapist she knew that the time had come to move on and find a new challenge. Having a connection to Kate’s Club through one of its employees at the time, Debra decided to try her hand at…
Read MoreDerrick's Story: To Write Love on Her Arms
Throughout the year, my employer, IDI, hosts “Caring Days” to raise money for nonprofits championed by IDI employees. Kate’s Club enjoyed a 2011 IDI Caring Day. Most recently the nonprofit To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) was spotlighted by my coworker Derrick. Derrick shared his TWLOHA connection and involvement with IDI and generously agreed to allow…
Read MoreGiving Can Be a Form of Healing
I struggled to fight back tears as I listened to Nancy Anderson, the mother of Kate’s Club participants Kinsey and Ellie, tell her story. Given Nancy suffered a loss, one may automatically assume that my tears were due to sadness. However, to the contrary, I restrained tears of joy. It’s not particularly often that…
Read MoreThe Beneficial Nature of a Two-Way Street
Christie Carden knew the pain of loss at a young age. As a junior in high school she lost her father. At seventeen years old she struggled to find meaning to the emotions moving through her yet gave up on her fight after only four counseling sessions, needing instead to be “strong for her family”. …
Read MoreBe The Light
Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with each of Mary Howell, the current Board Chair of Kate’s Club, and Toni Millner, the immediate past Board Chair of Kate’s Club (and currently a member of the Advisory Board), over coffee, to talk about their involvement with Kate’s Club. Mary is a Director of Corporate Finance…
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