Jun 1, 2023
After Greg and Cathy's adult son died unexpectedly by suicide,
every part of their lives was impacted by the grief. Day-to-day
tasks seemed almost impossible. They were now looking at the world
through the lens of grief. Cathy says that some days she would
drive to the grocery store only to sit in the parking lot for a few
minutes, realize that it would just be too hard, and then drive
back home again.
Now, many people said to Cathy during these first weeks and
months, "Call me if you need anything." The logical thing for Cathy
to do while she was sitting in that parking lot would have been to
call one of those friends and ask if they could meet her at the
store or even go to the store for her, but in that moment, it was
impossible for Cathy to use the lens of logic. Her emotions were
out of control focusing on everything that she could not do at that
moment. Thinking of a 'logical' solution was impossible so she just
drove back home knowing that she would have to do without the
groceries.
This is just one of the many reasons that Greg and Kathy felt
called to start a ministry of their own in order to educate the
public about child loss to help them understand a little bit about
what grieving parents go through each and every day. They started
an organization called The Empty Chair Endeavor and recently
launched a podcast entitled 'Hope After Child Loss' in order to
give parents a platform to tell their personal stories of faith and
grief. We may not be able to put down our own grief lens to look
through the logic lens as the world around us does, but Greg and
Cathy hope that their ministry will give listeners a little glimpse
of what it feels like to look at life through the lens of
grief.