News

Book aims to help grieving Gold Star parents cope with the loss of sons, daughters… [Watch the interview at WVEC].

Gold Star families often resent the fact that remembrance is frequently overshadowed by fun on Memorial Day. Although it is a federal holiday designed as a day to honor all service members who have honorably served and died in an active duty status, it is also a federal holiday that has evolved to an unofficial-start-of-summer event… [Read the entire piece in Military Times].

Today, Cathy Lewis leads a discussion about how our families and our communities help us deal with tragedy. We talk to Joanne Steen, author of We Regret to Inform You: A Survival Guide for Gold Star Parents and Those Who Support Them… [Listen to the interview at HearSay].

…Instead of letting her grief consume her, Steen used it to help others. She went back school, enrolling at Old Dominion University to become a counselor to help others… [Watch the interview at WKTR].

After coauthoring her first book, Military Widow: A Survival Guide, in 2006, Joanne Steen was approached by a ‘Gold Star’ parent — a term given to the immediate family members of someone who died while serving in the armed forces — and asked when she would write a book for her… [Read the entire piece at AARP].

Memorial Day is one of America’s long-standing holidays that has been in place since the end of the Civil War. When it was first observed, it wasn’t a three-day weekend known for mega sales, cookouts or the unofficial start of summer; it was a day of remembrance and gratitude for those who died in service to their country… [Read the entire piece in Military Times].