I became connected with Brooke’s Place back in 1999, very early on in the beginning.  I went through Facilitator Training with Pam Wright and Carol.  I was a Co-Facilitator for the 3-5 year olds.  I was entering Grad School at that time to get my Master’s in Social Work.  

I was a Co-Director of Camp Healing Tree along with others who worked in various hospice agencies as Bereavement Coordinators .  We all volunteered our time together together to organize the Camp Healing Tree experience and gather volunteers long before it became a Brooke’s Place Program as it is today. 

One Tool that I use is the Labyrinth.  Once I learned about the Labyrinth after Grad School and experienced the healing power of it in my own life, I went through training with an organization called Veriditas and became Certified.  I was already a Volunteer with Brooke’s Place after also going through my own Grief Therapy work.   I did additional grief work with Pam Wright too.  

The Labyrinth is a metaphor for each person’s own life journey and the collectiveness with other’s on their life journey. I have  2 portable Canvas Labyrinths that participants would actually walk on with others, many plastic and acrylic finger Labyrinths that participants can use to trace the grooved path with their fingers.  Also, people can use paper Labyrinths as an inexpensive method to use. 

Also, I have Facilitated Labyrinth Walks with various church groups and used Labyrinths in my prior role at Methodist Hospital over the last 15 years before I retired from my full-time work

Briefly, I will tell you that my own Grief Story began when I was born, really.  As a child, I didn’t know or have a name for it, but I was born into grief.

Both of my parents escaped Communism from what was then Czechoslovakia where they were born.  My dad was Jewish and his parents and family were all killed in the Holocaust.  ( my mom wasn’t Jewish - just my dad).

They escaped through Germany and displaced Jews were sent to Israel.  From there they went to England, then Canada over a period of years. They finally got permission to come the the United States.  When they came to the USA, they took all steps to become citizens.

My parents grieved their homeland and what had happened, the deaths, the trauma and trying to create a better life.  My Dad had been in the Military in Europe and was a chef.  He went to Cornell to become a Certified Club Manager and Managed various Country Clubs in the USA.  My mom did not work.

My sister,  brother and I were born in the US- they wanted to wait to have kids until they were Citizens here.  So, they were much older than my peers' parents.  They also didn’t want to talk about what happened in Communism and leaving their home Country, many deaths and their own grief.  However, we witnessed their sorrow and they told us to just be proud we are Americans.  My parents flew an American Flag at our home every day.  My daughter is now doing a genealogy search for our family.  It was only much later that I became aware that this family grief created generational family grief and I had a name  and language for this.

My parents both loved to cook.  Even today, my siblings and I try to re-create the ethnic food our parents made.  We probably weren’t as fond of eating “their food” as kids as we are now.  ( we didn’t help them cook very much). I can vividly remembering asking my mom to make Rice Crispy Treats that I had for the first time in first grade at school.  She told me to ask the Cafeteria Cook how to make them!  Elsie, the main Cafeteria Cook told me to have my mom buy Rice Krispies, butter and marshmallows and follow the recipe on the box….and so we did!

Thus, later as went trough my own  Grief Therapy.  I have always wondered how different my parent’s experience would have been, if they had Grief Services or if there had been a “Brooke’s Place” for our family.  I would have understood that our parents and thus my siblings and I were living with in-processed grief and would have been able to give this a name and learn skills to work through this.

My Dad was born in 1910 and died in 1984 before my first child, our daughter, was born.  My Mom was born in 1918 and died at the end of 1999 following living with Alzheimer’s Disease.  

I was already involved with Brooke’s Place as a Volunteer when my mom died.  I can still remember the phone call from Carol checking in with me and providing care, concern and compassion to me!

In my prior paid work after getting my MSW, I worked in Hospice and Palliative, helping others with death and dying, grief and loss, and life and living.  I made referrals to Brooke’s Place to numerous families over the years.

It was then through Grief Therapy, I learned what grief is and that I could work through this….I was on my Labyrinth path and going around curves and being far away from that place of peace…but I could get there! I learned who I was and what interested me and this is all part of My Story and shaped me to be the person I am.

When I was preparing for my full-time work retirement from IU Health in June 2023, I came to the Brooke’s Place Therapy Services Open House in May 2023.

Then, with applications being accepted for a Brooke’s Pace Contract Therapist position being taken…I applied and was offered the position I now have.

I believe I have come full circle through Brooke’s Place!!  I am grateful for the opportunity to serve others and to continue to be part of Brooke’s Place!