In the Press
Southern Finger Lakes Star Gazette, September 19, 2005
Author from Branchport wants to help teens, young adults cope with loss.
Thomas Pellechia, Special to the Star-Gazette
BRANCHPORT - If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to help a child grieve?
That is the question Branchport resident and nurse, Leah Hawley, asked herself several times over the course of a 35-year career in terminal hospice care.
With a certificate in Grief Counseling and Hospice Care from Southwest College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Hawley has the techniques for helping adults get through the loss of a loved one, but she had always wondered about the effect on young people. Hawley found out that young people are often left to grieve alone, which she believes can be unhealthy.
After working with young people who have sustained loss, Hawley decided to write a book that would help young people grieve.
You Can Get There From Here: Journaling through the Grief, a Guide for Teens and Young Adults is the first in what Hawley envisions as a three-part series of books. The second book will be directed at third graders to eighth-graders; the final one will target younger children.
The first book in the You Can Get There From Here series was released this past July. It includes meaningful stories and anecdotes concerning the loss of loved ones, plus quotes from other authors to help sort out the grieving process. The book also walks teens and young adults through the changes and experiences of loss and grief. Then, it asks questions for young people to consider about their experiences.
Lastly, the book provides space for journaling, where young people can express grief in their own words. The journaling pages, enough for a full year, allow the reader to record the feelings they experience as events take place without that loved one nearby.
It took Hawley some time to put her book together, and she could not have done it without the help of her close siblings, who are also in the local caregiving services - Susan Heller and Lina Brennan. Heller has for many years been a hospice volunteer and is affiliated with the Penn Yan Ambulance Corp. Brennan works in the Yates County health care system.
While working on the book together, the three siblings thought of ways to enhance the benefit of helping young people deal with loss. The sisters designed a series of grief cards and grief kits with the goal of providing a message of love and a hug to a young person who has sustained a loss.
The gift cards are small and show the siblings' artistry. Hawley does soft watercolors of fuzzy animals for the front of the cards, and Heller provides the card layout. Each card includes room for a personal note. Residents of the Yates County ARC assembled the first batch of cards.
The grief kits provide a physical means to remember a loved one. The kits include a small cloth bag (sewn by Brennan) into which "things to remember by" can be kept. The kits include materials to create personal gift cards and candles so that a personal memorial can be generated. Brennan plans a future kit that will provide for group memorials such as biodegradable floats that can be launched in a small body of water in memory of a loved one.
You Can Get There from Here is available locally at Long's Cards and Books on Main Street in Penn Yan. Discussion for a future book signing is in progress. The book is also available through Barnes & Noble and Borders and online at www.amazon.com and at the book's master distributor, www.opapresents.com.
The sisters have an amazing level of energy for and dedication to healing. They plan to bring their creations for young people to a variety of organizations and businesses that provide for the grief stricken, hoping to prove to them that youngsters need as much help and support as adults need to get through the loss of a loved one in a healthy, cleansing way.
Penn Yan Chronicle-Express, Wednesday, October 25, 2005
Sisters offer to help grieving children.
Connie Murphy, staff Reporter
PENN YAN - Sisters have a special bond, often thinking the same things at the same time. Leah Bailey Hawley, Susan Heller and Lina Brennan have taken their common interest in helping people and created a line of products to help children and young adults through the process of grieving.
Through her nursing experiences, Hawley came to realize that there were few resources specifically for children and young adults who had lost someone close to them. "Our love and concern for our children has created a societal norm of shielding them from the pain of loss by distancing or removing them from our traditional, public expressions of grieving," Hawley said.
But she points out that in order to move on with their lives, they need to mourn their losses and reach some kind of closure.
To help teens and young adults, Hawley has written a workbook/journal called You Can Get There From Here: Journaling through the grief, a guide for teens and young adults. It provides a year's worth of readings, questions and thoughts, as well as space to write down and draw their own feelings.
Heller and Hawley have developed a line of sympathy cards especially for children who have lost someone they love. The artwork is simpler, with a message just for the child. There are currently two sets available, one for teens and one for younger children.
And Hawley and Brennan have created "Honorings from the Heart," packaged kits that contain supplies and guidelines to help children and teens create meaningful ceremonies. Although the kits can be geared to specific situations, they all contain journaling information, a memorial card, and some form of ceremony.
Depending on the theme, children may plant wildflowers in memory of a loved one or sail a candle-boat with the loved one's name on it or blow bubbles up to heaven.
Brennan said, "This is a way kids can physically do something about their grief."
For more information on any of these items and ordering information, go to Hawley's website: www.keuka-saguarogriefworks.com. Her book is available locally at Long's Cards and Books, where a book signing will be held Saturday, October 29, from 10 a.m. to noon.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, October 27, 2005
Cards, Kits Help Children Grieve
Maeleeke Lavan, Staff writer
(October 27, 2005) - When someone dies, understanding and caring friends often send sympathy cards to the loved one's family members. But Leah Hawley, a nurse for 35 years, realized that the tender feelings of grieving children often were overlooked. To fill that void, Hawley and her sisters, Susan Heller and Lina Brennan, developed a line of sympathy and grief-related items especially for kids.
Through their company, Sibs Creations, Hawley and Heller designed a collection of simple and touching Sympathy Cards for Kids ($2.50 each) that can be sent to children who are grieving. The personalized artwork on the front of the cards tells children it's OK to be sad.
Brennan also helped to create kits for children called “Honorings From The Heart.” The kits ($16.25 each) serve as a way for children to reflect on those that they've lost by doing a specific activity in honor of that person, or thing. Some of the kits include wildflower seeds to plant in memory of someone or bubbles for blowing into the heavens.
Hawley, of Branchport, Yates County, has also created a journal for teens and young adults to write in for a year following a loved one's death. You Can Get There From Here is designed to help young people relieve their grieving thoughts and feelings through writing.
Sisters Donate New Children's Books
From a church newsletter, Branchport, N.Y.
With the recognition that little in life affects us more than the loss of a loved one, three of our church-family, Susan Heller, Lina Brennan and Leah Hawley, have undertaken a shared avocation - the support of children as they grieve.
Their mission is tri-fold: acknowledging children's losses, aiding in the expression of their grief, and informing/educating adults regarding children and their very real experiences of loss and grief. Their goal is to reach even the youngest through:
~ Sympathy Cards for Kids include original water-color artwork - kitty, puppy, teddy bear, church -for the youngest grievers and more stylized black/white candle and heart designs for preteens and teens.
~ Kits for Creating Ceremony are self contained with directions and supplies for helping children express their grief through honoring the lives of the loved ones they have lost through death.
~ Books on Loss and Grief offer information, as well as, companionship for young grievers as new experiences and challenging emotions and feelings of grief are encountered and integrated.
~ Educational Support through these 10 new books recently donated to our Resource Room Library.
1. I Miss You, A First Look at Death, Pat Thomas, Barron's Educational Series, Inc. (Sweet. Loss as a normal part of life. Acknowledges new feelings and changes of grief.)
2. The Next Place, Warren Hanson, Waldman House Press, Inc. (Death as a continuum, not an ending.)
3. Remembering Grandad, Facing Up to Death, by Gianni Padoan, Child's Play International, Ltd. (Unusual in that it begins with the child's relationship with his Grandad who is still alive and in ill health.)
4. When a Pet Dies, Fred (Mr.) Rogers, The Putnam and Grosset Group. (Uses photographs of real children and adults instead of illustrations. Shows children being comforted.)
5. What's Heaven? Maria Shriver, St. Martin's Press. (More recent, well know.)
6. Tear Soup, A Recipe for Healing After Loss, Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen, Grief Watch. (Addresses the angst of loss and our innate will to heal. Helpful information on loss and grief follows the story.)
7. Healing a Teens' Grieving Heart, 100 Practical Ideas for Families, Friends and Caregivers, Alan D. Wolfelt, PHD, Companion. (Easy layout - helpful since when a child is grieving, an adult who is trying to help them, is probably grieving also.)
8. Talking About Death, A Dialogue between Parent and Child, Dr. Earl A. Grollman, Beacon Press. (Icon in the field of children's grief - writer, counselor, lecturer. For parents with a child's read along section.)
9. The Art of Condolence, What to Write, What to Say, What to do at a time of loss, Leonard M. Zunin, MD and Hilary Stanton Zunin, Harper Perrenial. (“A sensitive and helpful guide for comforting those who face a loss. Very worthwhile reading.” - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.)
10. You Can Get There From Here, Journaling through the Grief, a guide for teens and young adults, Leah Bailey Hawley, Keuka-Saguaro Grief Works. (Space for reader's daily written and artistic expression, with guidance in the form of weekly writings offering suggestions for contemplation and questions to be considered in journaling. Original stories address: being open to the love and hope that can be present at life's end; finding healing through honoring; and recognizing the support that is available to us - from those of this realm and from the angelic kingdom, as well.)
