A Parent Describes Grief

With the death of our eldest child, I had no framework on how to proceed through my own mental health journey. People don’t talk about such things. As a television producer, I found myself thinking about our responsibility in telling stories around grief and mental health. Can we as an industry tell those stories accurately and effectively? ... My experience is that the topics of death, dying and grief are quite taboo – even though most will experience it. If you love someone, you will grieve. And anyone who has been there will tell you that grief can annihilate your mental health like a linebacker taking down a fourth-string quarterback. ... I will walk with grief the rest of my days, but now I know how to do it safely. Grief and mental health are inextricable. In our industry of telling stories, we cannot ignore this topic that affects us all. I feel so grateful that I got to tell the story responsibly… and in the end, we even got to laugh. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning’ Producer on How She Learned to Handle Grief