You need a witness to heal.
Where grief is understood, light is discovered, and community is found. Community, structure and hope for parents and siblings living with child loss or estrangement. We walk you from mourning to light. You don't walk alone.
Kathryn will send you the free 12-step invitations, meeting reminders and a weekly word of encouragement. Unsubscribe anytime.
I've walked through losses most people cannot imagine.
I had already lost my two precious baby girls before they ever set foot on this earth. A three year illness took me to Heaven's door, and when I came back I knew what was coming. My mother. My father. My brother. And then my beautiful 28 year old son, Jonny.
Knowing did not spare me one hour of the pain. That kind of trauma, child loss above all, can turn into what is called complicated grief, and it happens in up to 60 percent of cases. Four weeks after Jonny went home I lost access to my granddaughter, and that cut as deep as anything. My marriage ended. My remaining son went silent under the weight of it all. I do not judge him for that, not for a moment. It is all grief.
That is why I built the added curriculum, so that fewer parents get stuck where I could so easily have stayed. And I want you to hear the rest of it, because it is the part nobody believes at first. Through every bit of that, I found real joy. The sustaining kind. Beauty for ashes.
"If I can find light after walking through this valley, so can you!"
Heaven and my losses have been my greatest teachers. They showed me the way from mourning to light, and now I walk it beside other people. I do not try to fix anyone. I serve, I listen deeply, and I stay. Hope and purpose and healing are not only possible for you. They are already waiting.
If you are here, something has happened that should not have happened.
Maybe it was last month. Maybe it was years ago and everyone else has moved on. Either way, you went looking for a page about grief tonight, and that usually means today was heavy.
Whatever you are feeling, nothing has gone wrong with you:
- Exhaustion that sleep does not touch
- Weeping at something small, and standing dry eyed at the funeral
- Losing the word you were reaching for, mid-sentence
- Anger that frightens you a little
- Guilt over decisions no one could have made better
- A moment of ordinary happiness, followed by shame for having it
- Friends who went quiet once they ran out of things to say
These are normal responses to a loss that is not normal. You are not failing at grief. You are grieving. And you are welcome here exactly as you are.
Ordinary grief support does not reach this
Most grief advice was written for losing a parent at the end of a long life. It does not reach a family that has buried a child, and it does not reach a family living with a child who is still alive and will not speak to them.
- Grief that gets stuck. Mourning that hardens around you instead of softening. It is called complicated grief, and Kathryn built the added curriculum to walk people back out of it.
- The losses after the loss. Marriages end. Surviving children pull away under the weight. Grandchildren disappear from your life. Almost nobody names those out loud.
- Grief with no funeral. When a child or a grandchild cuts contact there is no service and no sympathy card. Kathryn calls it cut off culture. Here it is treated as exactly what it is.
The world gives a bereaved family about two weeks of attention. The grief lasts the rest of their life. Jonny's Angels stands in that gap for as long as you need us there.
No parent or sibling left isolated
"Our prayer and mission is to ensure no parent or sibling feels isolated in their grief. We believe this 12-step program, designed specifically for angel parents and siblings, brings community, light and structure to families who carry an unimaginable loss with courage and love."
Angel parent, grieving sibling, estranged parent, estranged grandparent. Whichever one you are, you belong here. Come as you are.
What a meeting is like
Nobody should have to walk into a room, even a room on Zoom, without knowing what is waiting on the other side. So here it is plainly, and the meeting calendar shows every date in your own timezone.
The 12-Step Program
Free, and open to anyone. One step at a time from mourning toward light, worked through with people who already understand. Most people begin here.
The Community Meeting
Our weekly gathering. A living room on Zoom where you are welcomed by name, where you can talk about your ick and still be loved, and where cut off culture is understood as grief whether it follows a death or stands on its own.
You do not have to speak. Plenty of people sit quietly for their first few weeks. Being witnessed is enough.
You do not have to be religious. Kathryn's story has her faith in it. The circle welcomes every belief and none, and nobody will preach at you.
You do not have to be a mother. Fathers, siblings, grandparents and estranged parents all have a full seat.
You do not have to be newly bereaved. Some of us lost our child last year. Some of us lost them twenty years ago. Grief does not keep a calendar.
Start with the free 12 steps
Leave your email and Kathryn will send you everything you need for this Tuesday. Nothing to pay, nothing to commit to, nothing to prepare. From mourning to light, one step at a time.
The other ways we walk with you
None of this is where you start. The free program is. But when you want to go further, this is what is waiting.
The weekly community
Thursday nights on Zoom, for angel parents, siblings, and parents and grandparents living with cut off culture.
How the group worksThe Grief-to-Light Journal
Morning grounding and evening release, written for the days you cannot see how to carry.
What is insideCoaching with Kathryn
One to one on Zoom, anywhere in the world. Deep listening from someone who has walked this exact road.
Book a sessionThe books
The 12-Step Manual and Workbook, Kathryn's own diary of the years after Jonny, and gentle stories for children.
Browse the booksFind a group near you
Look up your state to see where Jonny's Angels is already meeting in person.
Search by stateStart a group
If nothing meets near you yet, two books and a willing heart are all it has ever taken.
How to beginThe things people ask first
Who is Jonny's Angels for?
Angel parents who have lost a child, siblings grieving a brother or a sister, and parents and grandparents living with estrangement. Kathryn calls that cut off culture. It can follow a death or stand entirely on its own. Both are grief, and both are welcome.
Is there a support group for parents estranged from an adult child?
Yes. Kathryn calls it cut off culture, and it is welcome here whether it follows the loss of another child or stands entirely on its own. Estrangement is a real grief, sometimes called ambiguous loss, and it deserves the same witness as any other loss.
Is the 12-step program really free?
Yes. It meets Tuesdays at 11am EST and it is free when you leave your email. It is a structured path built to renew your mind, find peace, and turn mourning into light.
Is this therapy?
No. Jonny's Angels is peer support and coaching from lived experience. It is not licensed therapy or medical care, and it is not a replacement for either. If you are in immediate crisis in the US, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
What is an angel parent?
An angel parent is a mother or a father whose child has died, at any age. The child is their angel child. You never stop being their parent, and here you never have to pretend otherwise.
You do not have to carry this alone.
Start with the free 12 steps this Tuesday. Nothing to pay and nothing to prepare. Just come.
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