Last week I exhibited my memorial quilts at the 2015 Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) Conference in San Antonio. It was a completely new experience for me to be sharing my work in this capacity. My audience consisted of a varied group of professionals working in the field of death, dying, and bereavement – an audience that was immediately receptive to the idea of memorial quilts. I asked them as many questions about their work as they did mine, filling the time with a lively exchange of information.

When I wasn’t in my booth, I was able to attend conference sessions on a variety of topics. One was a lecture given by a grief counselor from China who discussed how people grieve in her culture. The second was a presentation by the director of a hospice center in Florida who described both the basics and the details of how hospice functions. I was especially impressed with the final session I attended, presented by two talented, young women from the Baltimore area, Litsa and Eleanor. Their talk was entitled Grief Below the Poverty Line. They shared their experience of leading groups in a low barrier homeless shelter where they encouraged the people there (primarily men) to talk about coping with loss. They were inspirational both as highly effective speakers as well as the way they spoke about their approach to this particular population. Litsa and Eleanor are also the authors/creators of a wonderful blog, What’sYourGrief.com that aims to provide support for anyone coping with grief.

To be surrounded by so many people who are devoting their lives to educating and supporting people on end-of-life issues broadened my awareness and sense of connection.