TN66: Dealing with loss and grief far from home with Melissa Dalton-Bradford
This is the second part of Melissa Dalton-Bradford’s interview on Tandem Nomads.
In the first episode, she tells us about her journey as a global mom and how she build a strong identity and portable career while moving 20 times from one continent to another.
In this second part, Melissa gives us the precious gift of sharing one of the most intimate and sacred events of her and her family’s life: the sad loss of her son Parker in a water accident. In this episode, she shares with us some insights to help each other deal with loss and mourning, especially when living so far away from “home.”
In fact, over the years she turned this tragedy and transformative event of her life into an admirable source of strength to help other people around the world who have to deal with the heavy experience of loss. She wrote the book “On Loss and Living Onward”, where she compiled the best resources and stories that helped her through the process of grief.
With such humility, she also came to the belief that there are people who have gone through even more tragedy in their lives. The terrible feeling of loss does not only relate to death, but also for example the loss of identity, security and the feeling of “home” that global nomads, displaced people and refugees can experience.
This is how, on top of her busy career and business as a soprano soloist, speaker, and author, she dedicates a considerable amount of her time helping refugees, providing them with German lessons to help them embrace the city where she currently lives, in Frankfurt, Germany.
Melissa is also the author of “Global Mom: A Memoire” where she tells the story of her family moving around the world and her reinvention journey.
I am very humbled to have Melissa share her story so generously and with such positive energies. I would also like to dedicate this episode to Parker Bradford, “may his soul rest in peace”.
In honor of Parker Bradford
Glimpse on Melissa’s insights in this episode:
- The three pillars that helped her and her family deal with the pain of their tragic loss, and go through the mourning process.
“We will never be the same people after a great loss but every loss also gives us a great opportunity to change.”
- How to help someone we care about who has lost a beloved one.
“The best thing you can do to help is show up and shut up. You can also use your gift to do something meaningful.”
- When being in mourning, how to give the right signals and indications of what we need, and how the family and community can help.
“Grief and forgiveness are inseparable to give each other the space to be human and do mistakes.”
- How Melissa and her family managed to cope with this loss while arriving in a new country and talk about it/or not with people they just met.
“Loss is what life is about, you can’t stretch your arms without touching some iteration of loss.”
Check out Melissa’s books!
She also recommends:
- A year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
Find Melissa Dalton Bradford:
Check out this wonderful video with various stories and testimonials to help those in grief:
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