COMING TOGETHER
Local authors, community celebrate ‘The Grief Experience’ book launch
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. »
Grief, defined by Merriam Webster as the “deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement,” is something no two people experience in the same way but everyone goes through.
This is exemplified by the 25 authors who contributed their experiences and tools to “The Grief Experience.”
This book shares “tools for acceptance, resilience and connection” as it touches on many different types of grief like the death of a parent or child, but also that of a homeland/heritage through immigration or a relationship through divorce.
Lead author Kelly Daugherty was the one who selected and connected the other authors during the process of writing the book — and it took a lot of work and interviewing to find the proper candidates. She estimates doing around 60 hours of interviews with people while on the search for the proper authors to bring on to this project because she wanted to create a final product that could help a wide variety of people.
“I think that’s the beauty, coming together with all these different types of losses, usually you read one book and it’s one type of loss, so to have 25 different people and 25 different loss experiences is remarkable and my belief is that whoever picks up this book is going to be able to relate to at least one of the authors in it,” Daugherty said.
“I really wanted people I wanted different experiences. And I wanted people that were aligned with my vision, and my belief about grief and loss. So yeah.
Cheri Davies, the author who wrote chapter four, “Fighting for Memories,” truly loved that every chapter had a unique point of view and highlighted a different grief experience.
“There’s everything from pet loss to Alzheimer’s, to substance abuse, death, infertility — there’s so many different great chapters,” Davies said. “What’s unique about our book too is at the end of each chapter, each author gives a tool that can be used, whether it’s journaling or in my chapter on Alzheimer’s it’s what you can take to the doctors to help you organize all the information you need.
“Everybody gives you some great tools that go along with their chapter, which is really personal to each one about what their experience with grief is.”
Of the 25 authors, 11 of them were local to the Saratoga area and came together, with an author from Pennsylvania, for a launch party for the book at Palette Saratoga to celebrate with family and friends, interact with readers, sign books and ultimately honor the experience it was to create “The Grief Experience.”
“We really wanted to bring awareness to this project, this book, to talk more
about grief because grief is something that we don’t want to talk about as a society, it can feel overwhelming,” said Daugherty in regards to the book launch. “I think this makes it a way to kind of be able to approach that subject. So we want to celebrate this because it is an important thing.”
“When you’re sharing these vulnerable stories, it also brings up your own grief, and so for a lot of the authors they had some hard times come up and some grief burst come up while writing this. Now that it’s out and our stories are available to the world it can feel a little overwhelming as well, but it is something we need to celebrate and be proud of because it was a huge accomplishment.”
The book became available for purchase on Feb. 6, and in one day it hit Amazon Bestseller in all six categories as well as four top number-one categories according to Daugherty.
Pallet Saratoga was packed with the author’s loved ones, fans of the book as well as community leaders who were excited to share their support for “The Grief Experience.” One of these local leaders was Capital Region Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President, Community Advancement Pete Bardunias.
“As someone who is very in tune with the community side of things, the fact that this is such a collaborative effort, 25 authors with a major chunk of them being local to Malta and the surrounding area, means a lot to our community,” Bardunias said. “People who can collaborate and come together on a particular subject, this particular being grief of course, and can come up with a wellrounded solution to a very serious challenge is something that really makes a difference in our community.”
One thing they know that Daugherty hopes those take away from their reading experience is that they are not alone in their grief journey. She hopes that this book doesn’t only provide tools to help someone through whatever grief they are experiencing, but it provides them comfort that someone has been through it too.
“I hope they take away that there are other people out there and that they don’t have to do this alone,” Daugherty said. “There are tools that can help them, there are resources and people can talk about their losses because it isn’t something they have to do on their own. There is support for people out there who are grieving.”