Camp Widow® presenter: Emma Grey
Writing your grief
Join international bestselling novelist Emma Grey for a practical session on writing and grief.
Emma will share how writing about her personal journey as young widow – first in Facebook posts, then short articles and finally in a novel – helped her understand and express her grief, connect with other widows and move forward into her Plan B life.
You will leave this session with practical strategies on how to get started with writing, prompts to guide you through the process and tips to overcome common mindset obstacles when faced with a blank page.
About Emma
Emma Grey is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, ‘The Last Love Note’ – a romantic comedy about a midlife widow processing her loss while finding love (and life) again. She wrote the novel, described on Oprah Daily as “relatable, hilarious and charming”, in the wake of her husband’s death. It is a fictional tribute to their love, an attempt to articulate the magnitude of her loss and a life-affirming commitment to hope.
Jeff died from a heart attack at home in 2016. Widowed at 42 with three children, Emma fought her way through the shock and darkness guided by advice from her friend, Rebecca Sparrow, to allow the loss to turn the light up in life, not down.
From re-purposing the funeral flowers into fresh bouquets for the hospital through to co-writing a glittering musical, taking up photography and capturing the Aurora Australis, Emma has ‘chased the light’ on her own for seven years. She became a spokesperson for the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, flew to New York to speak at an international conference in Jeff’s honour, downsized into a home she and her best friend designed (complete with symbolic white picket fence) and lobbied politicians to ease the heartache of death administration.
Eight years into being widowed, there are times when the searing loss still brings Emma to her knees. But it’s writing, photography, music and the love of friends and family that pulls her forward into a fulfilling Plan B future that sparkles in a different way.
Hope, community, understanding
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