It was hard watching my friends’ reactions, seeing their concerned faces, hearing their condolences of “I’m sorry” and the lingering silence afterward. None of them had yet lost a parent; no one understood what it was like to watch their mother die. This dance of all of us trying to put each other and ourselves at ease only made me feel more separate from them.

—Jessica Machado: Local

Holly Margl is the award-winning author of Witnessing Grief; Inviting Trauma and Loss to Our Coaching Conversations, An Enneagram Perspective, coach, coach mentor, and trainer specializing in grief, trauma, and the Enneagram.