Ever After - Grief & Healing Play for Families & Adults

11/22/2025

As Professionals talking about Grief and Family Struggles can be hard to get people to engage with you.

Planning your vendor booth is so important.

You might deal with a heavy subject but you don't have to present doom and gloom 🌨️

Define your goals and budget and include something playful that tells a story about your business to engage people

Vendor booth success lies in being creative and repurposing items for different uses.

11/22/2025

Neglect needs to stop. I was a victim of hospital neglect and almost died because of it. Let's heal our providers and community so we can help our clients and patients. YES play can do that. Mental Health is important 💙

Just a week after a Chicago mother gave birth along the roadside following a premature discharge from the hospital, the facility where she sought help has fired the medical personnel responsible for the decision.

Read more: https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/we-failed-to-listen-hospital-fires-doctor-nurse-after-chicago-mother-gives-birth-along-roadway-following-premature-discharge/

11/22/2025

Given the high level of stress and danger faced by law enforcement, mental health issues are of particular concern for police officers.

How does grief play help police officers?

Provides an outlet they normally don't get to release trauma, depression and decompress after a hard case.

Laughing, being silly and letting go isn't normally a part of their training and their body needs this.

Play reduces mental fatigue and can decrease anxiety, stress, and mild depression.

Playing together builds camaraderie.We pair officers into teams with other officers that they normally don't work with. This will help build trust and a sense of partnership and can increase communication that can save all lives when officers are feeling clear minded, healthy, heard and helps with the long-term mental health of an officer.

11/22/2025

Deputies reported hearing screaming and notified an on-call nurse but did not report a medical emergency, jail records show. Hours later, a nurse and deputy found Kelsey Love wedged inside her torn sleeping mat, blood smeared across the floor.

Love had given birth, scooped mucus from the baby’s mouth, tied the umbilical cord with a used condom she found under a bench, bit the cord off, then crawled into the mat to keep him warm.

The boy, whom she named Xayden, had drugs in his system but was otherwise healthy. Her father and stepmother cared for him until she was stable.

Love said she received a $200,000 settlement from Franklin County, which denied allegations in court filings. The jail has since changed its medical contractor, and adopted a new policy requiring that the contractor have a protocol for the care of pregnant inmates.

Pregnant women who are jailed, often for petty crimes, are miscarrying or giving birth in excruciating pain and into cell toilets or onto filthy jail floors, according to an investigation from Bloomberg Law and NBC News.

Read more women's stories: nbcnews.app.link/O8vMsZUZrYb NBC News

11/17/2025

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There is always that first time. It was my first time having a client's parents die at the same time. My first time having to step out and really hold it together. I established myself as the safe, fun person in that child's life in what is the darkest moment so when they see me, they are watching m...

11/11/2025

“Having a newborn is a very sloppy, ugly, disheveled time of life. I felt out of the picture. I felt very taxed and very needed, but also very invisible,” photographer Tabitha Soren wrote in 2021. “The images get at that ethereal quality of not feeling like a whole person. I’m not really in focus, because my brain isn’t in focus either.”
https://theatln.tc/B2IUHEHw

📸: Tabitha Soren

11/11/2025

There should’ve been a stocking with their name on it.
A “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament hanging on the tree.
A tiny outfit waiting by the fireplace.
A picture planned for the holiday card.

This was supposed to be the year…
the year she bundled them up in matching pajamas,
the year she placed a tiny handprint in clay,
the year she felt the magic from the other side of grief.

But instead there’s a quiet ache where joy was meant to live.
An empty space under the lights.
A heart trying to beat
around everything that never got to happen.

She’s still a mother,
even if her arms are empty.
She still loves deeply,
even if there’s no crib in the corner.

So light a candle for the ones who should’ve been here.
Hang their ornament anyway.
Say their name out loud.

Because some Christmas miracles
are the kind we remember,
not the kind we unwrap.

Via unfiltered filter

11/10/2025

11/07/2025

10/31/2025

Halloween can bring up a mix of joy and sadness especially for moms and kids who are missing someone. If this year feels heavy, that’s okay. You don’t need to perform “fine.”
Here are a few gentle ways to get through the night: prepare a quiet space if your child needs a break, create a small memory ritual (a candle, a photo on the porch), and give yourself permission to step away when you need it. Grief and celebration can live together and you’re doing the best you can for your family. 💛

10/29/2025

Today we learned that anger is okay — it’s what we do with it that matters. Help your child practice small calm-down steps: stop, close your eyes, step away, and try cold water to reset. Celebrate effort, not perfection. 💙