Grief Garden

06/09/2026

Our Director was a guest on the Lighting the Path podcast this week sharing information about the child life profession, how she got into this career, and how she supports children connected to hospice! Check it out wherever you listen to podcasts!

In this episode, we sit down with child life specialist Katie Ransdell to explore how children experience grief and how hospice professionals can better support them. Katie shares her journey into the field of child life, practical insights for working with grieving children, and meaningful stories....

06/09/2026

Reminder about our upcoming Cancer Support Series in Lincoln in collaboration with the April Sampson Cancer Center!

When cancer affects a family, children feel it too. We are offering the Caregiver Workshop Series with Grief Garden, which equips adults with tools to talk with kids about illness and uncertainty, followed by hands-on sessions just for children led by Certified Child Life Specialists.

Adult Session
Saturday, June 13, 2-4 pm
(Childcare available if needed)

Child-Only Sessions (ages 5-18)
Thursday, June 18 & 25, 5-6 pm

Limited spots + childcare available. Register at https://www.bryanhealth.com/app/calendar/registration/RegistrationForm.aspx?eventId=1f91d560-7849-f111-a882-000d3a611ea2
Questions: 402 481 7900

06/01/2026

The Grief Garden team is incredibly excited to share our first birthday with our community. During this past year we have been fortunate to meet and support so many children and their families through some of the hard stuff. Tears and laughter have been healing and we are so honored to be welcomed into those tender moments, thank you for trusting us with your care.

Looking forward to all our future opportunities to connect and support!

05/29/2026

When having hard conversations with kids about a diagnosis or death/dying using these five guidelines can help families get conversations going on the right foot.
1. Be Honest- don't try to dim the conversation because you as an adult are nervous to have it. If kids are able to think about it enough to ask, they are able to hear the answer!
2. Concrete Language- call a spade a spade! Name the illness so they know it's different from a stomach bug and use death language to prevent misunderstandings.
3. Child Led- kids will start, follow, and end conversations as they need; follow their lead and only answer their direct question asked.
4. Open-Ended Questions: if you give a child the option to answer yes/no, they will take it! To really know how kids are doing use open ended questions where they have to fill in the blank.
5. Silence- processing and understanding difficult news takes brain power and uninterrupted time. Allow children their full processing time and use nonverbal cues/body language to gauge moving on in the conversation!

05/25/2026

05/23/2026

Our team is excited to be partnering with the April Sampson Cancer Center to provide free support to families with a loved one who has a cancer diagnosis.
This three part series includes a 2-hour caregiver session (childcare available!) and then two child only kids sessions to help them ask questions, process, cope, and understand what a cancer diagnosis means for their family.

Scan the QR code to learn more and register!

05/21/2026

Grief Garden is here to support you and your family, this month and every month.
Now accepting therapy clients via private pay or with our private subsidy program. Call and inquire (531)-203-1604

05/19/2026

Do you know an organization that serves patients/families with complex medical diagnoses or end-of-life? The Grief Garden team has two presentations to provide education to those teams in how to better to approach these difficult conversation topics with children!

Reach out to our team to discuss a visit from our team! (531)-203-1604

05/16/2026

Camp is just two months away!
We would love to have your children, or children you love, join us in connecting and remembering those we love who have died. Registration is due by June 12th.

Questions about camp? Call or text our team at (531)-203-1604

05/13/2026

Spring has been great for Grief Garden and we are looking forward to all things summer and supporting our kids and families during special holidays and anniversaries.