LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The sound of bowling balls hitting pins filled the air Sunday as the Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families took a different approach to help those dealing with loss.
"You hear grief and grief support groups. They immediately think it's sad, but you hear the fun and laughter today. That's kind of the heart of what we try to create with our programs," said Leila Salisbury, executive director.
The bowling event offered a fun way to open up lanes of communication about grief — a topic many people struggle to understand or discuss.
"We've had these hard things happen and we can talk about them, but there's also room to play," Salisbury said.
The community event brought together families who share similar experiences of loss, creating connections that help participants relate to one another. By sharing in each other's pain, they ultimately lift each other up.
The program proved meaningful for Maggie Bessette and her daughter Emma, who lost her father in 2023.
"My daughter doesn't have many people in her life that have walked through similar circumstances. It means a lot that she has that space," Bessette said.
The empty feeling that grief creates is ever-changing, but Bessette finds relief in these events. She credits the Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families for helping her daughter navigate her loss. "There is always someone out there walking through something similar and you just never know what people are going through. It gives me peace and comfort knowing that we have people to walk through this with," Bessette said.
"Seeing a room full of people having fun but also understand the pain that they have gone through can be incredibly healing," Salisbury said.
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