WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Losing a loved one is never easy. That’s why Children’s Wisconsin offers grief counseling to families.
It’s an initiative that aims to make families healthy in all aspects of life, including their mental health.
For one Wauwatosa family, these services have helped them find comfort.
It was just over five years ago that Amy Gehl and her son Will lost the most important person in their lives.
“He was just a good guy,” Amy Gehl said.
Amy Gehl’s husband Mark passed away after battling esophageal cancer twice. He was only 49 years old.
“It was a pretty bad cancer,” Amy Gehl said. “It didn’t have a lot of survival rate to it.”
Amy Gehl was battling grief while becoming a single parent at the same time. She was also watching her son struggle over the loss.
“I feel like a grief while you are raising a child is an extra challenge because you don’t have those moments to yourself and you need to be there for your child,” Amy Gehl said.
It wasn’t long before Amy Gehl began looking for grief groups and counseling. She came across the long list of options through Children’s Wisconsin and found a fit for her family.
“That was sort of the thing I really needed. I need someone who gets what I am going through, and he needs someone who gets what he is going through,” Amy Gehl said.
Nichole Stangel is a bereavement and critical incident stress management coordinator with Children’s Wisconsin. She said it’s important to seek help when it’s needed.
“When a significant death happens, this is a longer process,” Stangel said. “It takes years sometimes to really process and figure out — what does that death mean?”
Children’s Wisconsin has nearly a dozen different programs that are all free and you don’t have to be a child to use them. For Amy Gehl’s son, Will, it was hard to lose his dad, but he said he’s grateful to have the tools he learned from therapy.
“It was helpful to see other kids who were going through what I went through and be able to do stuff with them,” Will Gehl said.
While every day isn’t easy, the Gehl family said they’re stronger and closer after finding the care they needed.
“I feel like I’m not alone and I think that is the most important part,” Amy Gehl said.
Now, as a volunteer at Children’s Wisconsin, she’s helping other families going through grief.