For decades, I've walked alongside grief — as a grief specialist, an author, and, just as importantly, as someone who has lived it. I am a bereaved child and a bereaved parent. I watched my own father struggle after the death of my mother, his spouse of many years, and in that experience I saw clearly how much was missing: advocacy, education, and real, sustained support for families like ours.

Even within my own organization, we felt the limits of what we could do. We had always held one principle sacred — that no one would ever be turned away from grief support for lack of ability to pay. We funded that promise ourselves, year after year. But over time, so many people came to us wanting to help too. They saw the need. They wanted to be part of the answer.

That's how Helping Hearts was born.

This organization exists to meet the needs I've seen go unaddressed for far too long — needs shared by families who have lost a child, a spouse, a parent, a sibling, and so many other losses that don't always have a name attached to them, but carry the same weight of grief.

We've received seed funding to begin this work, and we've welcomed our first Executive Director to help lead it. We are still in the early days — exploring, building, and listening — but we believe deeply in where this is headed.

The need in this world is enormous. Grief touches nearly everyone, yet so few are given the tools, community, or support to move through it with dignity. Helping Hearts is our answer to that gap.

I hope you'll join us along the way. Together, we can build a place where no one grieves alone, and where every loss is met with the care it deserves.

— David Kessler