Alexandra Eads was a volunteer counselor and videographer at the 2017 Hermann Sons Life Camp Grief Support Session. But this was not her first summer at Hermann Sons Life Camp. She had worked as a counselor and senior counselor in the past.
“Anyone who has worked at Camp can attest to its healing power, but this session was on a completely different level. And for many of the counselors, including myself, it was very personal,” she relates.
It was personal because on July 22, 2015, her stepdad and uncle were killed in a head-on collision outside of Tilden, Texas. Alex was at Camp when her mother, who was 200 miles away, called and asked that she be woken up so she could tell her the news.
Alex was very close to her stepfather. “Travis and I always hated the term ‘stepdad’ since he had been part of my life since I was very young,” she says. That’s why she called him her “Big Dude.”
“To say the accident was devastating is an understatement. Anyone who has suffered a tremendous loss like that will agree. My grandparents lost their only children. My mom and aunt lost their soulmates. My cousins, sister and I lost our dads.”
Alexandra and her mom shared their memories, pictures and videos. Alexandra started a blog. But Alexandra and her mom were at a loss as to how to help with the grief her 9-year-old sister was feeling.
Alexandra describes her sister as going from being rambunctious to withdrawn. Asking her questions and encouraging her to share was only making her withdraw more.
So Alexandra brought her sister with her to the Grief Support Session. Her sister had not spent the night away from home since the accident, so this was a big step.
“When we went to the Grief Support Session, everything changed,” Alex begins. “You see, what she’d been missing was having another child to talk to about what she was going through. Someone who understood where she was coming from because they were in the exact same place. Seeing her laugh, and cry, and share with these other kids made it all very clear that this is what she needed.”
In the video Alexandra made, her sister is the first girl you see talking about her grief.
“She talks to us at home now. She’s starting to get back to the little girl she was before.”
When Alex reflects on the session, she says, “I am so thankful to have been part of this session and so glad it will be able to continue providing healing for many summers to come.”
