Finding Hope in the Shadows of Loss with Denny Meek

Today’s show includes mention of suicide and other issues that may be triggering. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for help. You can call or text 988 to be connected to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US. In Canada, call 833-456-4566 any time.

In the face of indescribable loss, how can we find a way … day by day … to keep going? Denny Meek is my guest today. She wants to share openly about the challenges she’s gone through so that the shame, secrecy, and silence society puts around grieving (especially bereavement from suicide) and can instead find inspiration in what the human spirit is capable of. “If impossible experiences can be endured, they can bring untold personal growth,” she says.

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Denny Meek is an author, speaker, and a fighter.

Her book, Still Standing: A Mother’s Raw Journey from the Shadows of Loss to the Dawning of Hope, is a memoir that raises awareness domestic violence, infant loss, anorexia nervosa, teen suicide, and grief. The book is being used at three Australian universities to inform undergrad and post-grad students in health sciences, social work, psychology, education, and nursing.

Of her four children, three are deceased. One was lost to a rare heart disease as an infant, and two others committed suicide as teenagers. Denny was in two main relationships that subjected her to domestic abuse. She has had to confront many losses, pains, and challenging situations, but through it all, she has endured, survived, and learned to live again.

Her fulltime mothering was supplemented by a series of odd jobs, from unemployment project officer to bar staffer, from photographer to professional tarot reader, from video editor to teacher’s special aide. She lives in Australia with her adult son.

Find out more about Denny and her work at dennymeek.com.