Hi my name is Kathie and I am the host of Grief Ireland.

I set it up in late 2020 as a supportive community to have a place online to see quotes about loss, real stories about death and grief. To hear real people and to have a place to go for advice from professionals. I felt there was a huge need at that time for a grief community. There was and still is a silence and taboo around Grief. Things are getting better but the grief community are still largely isolated and unsupported.

In Sept 2014 my big sister and role model Elaine was diagnosed with a Grade IV brain tumour. She received treatment and was recovering well when in a tragic accident in late 2015, her husband Pa lost his life tragically and suddenly. No warnings, no goodbye. Not something we ever saw coming.

Picking up the pieces and supporting my sister and her two small boys was incredibly difficult. It was my first real experience of grief and it was horrible.

One year later right after Pa’s first anniversary, Elaine began to feel ill again and after a long period of uncertainty and many stressful nights in A & E, they eventually diagnosed Elaine again on Dec 14th. She died February 4th 2017.

I was holding her hand. It changed my whole life. They were both so young I feel it is only right to keep talking about them and to keep their memory alive.

If you are here reading this, then chances are that your life or someone you know, has had their life changed forever. It is the most difficult thing you will perhaps ever have to navigate and I understand how hard it can be. In saying that grief is completely unique and no two stories are the same. Grief is as unique as a fingerprint. We can never know how another is feeling or what they have been through. Yet there is comfort in finding others who have loved and lost and perhaps been in a similar situation.

Grief is incredibly isolating, misunderstood and still taboo.

My mission is to connect, educate, remember, build a community whilst supporting the bereaved and their support network.

Welcome and sending love to you all.