Lake Highlands resident Jennifer Walz and former neighborhood resident Jinna Russell are fostering discussion on what is sometimes considered a taboo topic: death.
Veterans in hospice care with multiple titles and degrees between them, Walz and Russell have just released their first book, “Saying Goodbye to Buddy: When a Pet Dies”, about a boy coping with the loss of his faithful companion. Walz was inspired to create the book when her cat, Annie, died a year ago, and literature on grieving the loss of a pet was nowhere to be found.
She wanted a way to help her then 4-year-old son, Alex, to cope.
“When I was a kid, people just didn’t talk about death,” Walz says. And though conversation was absent from her childhood concerning human or animal death, Walz hopes the short book will guide other kids and their guardians through a healthy grieving process together.
“If we act like it’s a scary horrible thing, they’re going to carry that on to the next generation,” Walz says.
The book is designed to not only encourage conversation among family members, but also includes an activities section in the back where children can pen memories of loved and lost pets. Proceeds from book sales go toward the authors’ nonprofit, Conscious Crossings.
For more information visit consciouscrossingsinc.com.
