Family Testimonials

These sisters aren't letting loss define them.

Emely, 20, and Kealey, 17, unexpectedly lost their mother ten years ago. They both struggled to cope at first but began to heal after they started coming to group nights at Valerie's House. 

The girls are now Valerie's House Ambassadors and help lead grief groups. They even help with our Spanish-speaking families, as the sisters are bilingual. 

Shon Wells’ world was changed forever after the death of his wife to cancer. The couple had been married for 11 years and had two children together. Their boys, Caleb and Noah, were also devastated by this loss.

“After Janet passed, I was a complete mess,” Shon said. “I felt lost and broken and had no idea how to help my boys deal with their grief.”

Within two months after Janet’s death, the Wells’ family discovered Valerie’s House.

Monday night, Punta Gorda little Shelby describes Valerie’s House as a home away from home.

Her grandparents, Debi and Michael, have played an active role in raising Shelby since she was born. Shelby is now six years old and has only ever known a distant relationship with her parents.

Kari and Carter know what it’s like to lose someone they love. This mother-son duo is using their personal experience with loss to transform the lives of other grieving families at Valerie’s House.

“Valerie’s House welcomed us with open arms,” Kari said. “They were there for us during those dark days. They gave us a safe space to grieve and share our loss. Most importantly, they reminded us that we were not alone.”

When Kari was only eleven years old, her father died of a massive heart attack at the age of 36. She felt isolated like no one understood what she was going through. Kari grieved in silence with no place to go to talk about her feelings.

Then, in 2021, Kari learned that her son’s father had died just days into his recent deployment with the U.S. Army.

I'm sure anyone who loses a loved one comes to the realization that life keeps going, even if we are not ready for it. Some cope with this truth better than others. I lost my father the day before my 17th birthday. I can’t say that I coped well, but I do know the reality of his death hit me so intensely I was left stunned.

I remember the day the first signs of my dad’s cancer showed. He had been coughing for months and had pain in his throat, but he put off going to the doctor with a long list of excuses and self-diagnoses as to why it would eventually pass. I remember one specific day, I called my dad and learned that he was in the hospital because he wasn’t feeling well.

Tabitha was killed in a hit-and-run accident on the evening of February 13, 2021. She was only 34. The shock of her sudden death rippled through her family and left them with the unbearable anguish of loss and a tremendous amount of heartache and stress, not knowing who had done this.

Tabitha’s mother, Terri, said, “We would all like some small measure of closure.”

But unfortunately, to this day, the police still have no solid leads in her case.

Jaslene, Tabitha’s daughter, was referred to Valerie’s House- Charlotte County by a social worker at her middle school. She and her grandmother, Terri, had no idea a place like this existed. It was tough for Jaslene to go to group night at first.

Rebecca Russell and her two girls struggled to cope after the unexpected loss of Rebecca’s mother, the children’s grandmother. She suffered a massive heart attack in August 2020, and the news shocked everyone.

Then, only a year later, Rebecca’s husband began having complications as a result of Covid-19. He died in October 2021, leaving behind a loving widow and two grieving daughters.

Rebecca said she didn’t know where to turn after experiencing two major losses in such a short amount of time.

“My kids, just like me, were lost and adrift after the deaths,” Rebecca said. “Coming to Valerie’s House helped my kids and me find healthy outlets to cope.”

Jill's husband, Steve, started getting sick in 2019. They didn't know it at the time, but Steve was suffering from multi-organ failure, which was later diagnosed in June of that year.

He was then admitted to the hospital, as his condition began to worsen.

The couple, having been together since 1999 but never married, decided to tie the knot on July 1st in the Health Park Hospital Chapel because they didn't know how much time they had left.

Just ten days later, two days shy of his 60th birthday, Steve died, leaving behind his wife and eleven-year-old daughter, Samantha.

Grief doesn’t just go away; a person learns to live with it instead.

Jeff Lampila lost his wife seven years ago and is a single father raising two children. Finn, age 13, and Kinsley, age 8, attend Valerie’s House with their dad for peer grief support groups. They were one of the first Valerie’s House families to ever walk through our doors.

“With Valerie’s House, you come here and see people who are just like you,” Jeff said. “We make those deep connections here, and it provides security for us.”

In addition to the grief of losing their mother, Finn and Kinsley are now grieving much more. The Lampila family lost all their belongings as a result of Hurricane Ian.

Diane, a widow, and her 13-year-old son, Evan, began attending Valerie's House group nights shortly after Evan's father died in July of 2022. Diane remembers the day the police came to her house after she had found her husband.

"I was in a haze," Diane said.

She also said she could see the officer's mouth moving but wasn't hearing any of it. The officer handed her a Valerie's House business card, which she glanced at and then handed to her son.

Nothing can break this brotherly bond, not even grief.

Samuel, age 11, and Joseph, age 9, are consistent members of the Monday night grief group at Valerie’s House- Fort Myers. They started coming to group night with their father, Arnold, in January 2021.

The brothers are grieving the death of their mother, Arnold’s wife, who passed away in April 2020 after losing her battle with cancer. They all have found comfort while attending group night at Valerie’s House.

After three months of fighting Covid-19 in the intensive care unit, Beverly's husband of twenty-one years lost his battle in September 2021. Gilberto was sixty-one years old and the father of three children. He was a man of faith and known for his love of the gospel.

Beverly attends group night at Valerie's House- Punta Gorda with her daughter, Gilnelys, who is twelve years old.

When families make that first phone call to us at Valerie’s House, it takes a great deal of courage. Their lives have been shattered and completely turned upside down. For one of our moms, Claire, it was no different.

When Claire’s husband came home from work not feeling well one Friday afternoon and tested positive for Covid, nothing could have prepared her for the traumatic experience of driving him to the hospital that Sunday, just two days later, and not returning home with him.

Mackenzie didn’t know what would happen after her mother died of complications from a stroke in February 2020. Her mother was a single parent, and after her death, 16-year-old Mackenzie moved across the state from Port Saint Lucie to Naples to live with distant family.

Due to the COVID lockdown weeks after her tragic loss, Mackenzie was forced to grieve in isolation.

Check out this video from Alexis, who is a Valerie's House teen. She started coming to group night after the loss of her grandmother in 2020. Alexis plans to graduate from Mariner High School in the spring and recently started working with our grief support groups as a buddy. She created this video in hopes of receiving a scholarship to pursue higher education. We are so proud of Alexis for her hard work and dedication to the children of Valerie's House.

It’s been three years since Adrienne Harbin’s ex-husband died, but she said there are still moments where it feels like it’s happening for the first time all over again.

“It was the most devastating moment of my life,” Adrienne said. “I was numb and floating through life for a few months. Though it’s gotten better, I don’t think it will be something I will ever get over. But, I will hopefully move forward.”

Valerie's House is an amazing resource for the community and has been a place that has personally impacted my life.

Like many other parents trying to navigate mental health for our children from our recent world changes, I was hit with limited resources as waiting lists and support systems closed down. After 2 1/2 years of Hospice, my family and I said goodbye to our Hero and my husband of 29 years. He passed on 1/23/2019. Six months later, I found myself saying goodbye to my first grandson, who was five weeks old.

Veronica Morley knows what it’s like to grow up without a father. Her dad died when she was a teenager. Veronica is now a mother of two daughters and is walking a new part of her grief journey with them.

Veronica is a Valerie’s House- Naples caregiver grieving the loss of her husband. He died suddenly of unexpected heart complications in August 2016. She and her two teenage daughters, Coral and Caprice, have been attending group night since mid-2017 to grieve their loss.

Taylor was seventeen years old and in her senior year of high school when her mother died by suicide.

Between college applications and balancing a social life, she became overwhelmed when grief came into the mix.

Taylor was introduced to Valerie’s House in January 2017, three months after the loss of her mother. She was hesitant to talk about her loss; however, she was relieved to find other teens just like her.

Aiden's dad, Zach, died two years ago. Aiden has been coming to Valerie's House with his mother, brothers, and sister since a few months after Zach lost his life in a car crash. We spoke with Aiden about what Father's Day is like two years after losing his dad.

On December 22, 2020, my husband, Jesse Pitts, died in a car accident on his way home from work, just a few miles from our house. He was 32 and I was 30. He was the father of two girls, one boy, and another girl on the way. He doted over his children and was the best father I have ever seen.

I knew something had to be wrong on the night he died because he was taking longer than usual to get home. He didn’t reply to my text, but I didn’t want to panic. I figured I would go to the store and if I still hadn’t heard from him, then I would call around.

Lost, numb, and just going through the motions—that’s how Valerie’s House Teen Ambassador Austin Wolin described himself in the year and a half after his father’s unexpected death.

“I don’t even think I realized I was grieving at the time,” Austin said, who was just twelve when he lost his dad, Harris.

After fighting breast cancer for a little over a year and a half, Shannon lost her battle in August 2020. Brock lost the love of his life, and Zane and Izik were left without a mother.

Shortly after, the funeral home referred Brock to Valerie's House. His boys were hesitant and didn't want to go. But after touring the home, the boys were smiling from ear to ear.

Thursday night grandmother, Jeanne, lost her son to a drug overdose in May 2018. She has been coming to Valerie's House with her grandson, Jason, since then. Tragedy struck again when Jason lost his mother unexpectedly to a car accident in early 2020. Jason has gained self-confidence and coping skills through attending group night.

Heather Tharpe’s world came to a standstill after the sudden loss of her husband, Matt, in 2014. Six and a half years ago, he suffered a heart attack and died unexpectedly. Heather and her daughter Hailey were determined to keep his memory alive and attending group nights at Valerie’s House allowed them to do that.

Frances Bustamante and her children, Alexa and Nikko, were three years out from their loss in January of 2016 and still very much looking for ways to cope.

Stori held her mother’s hand while overwhelmed with emotion. She was receiving treatment following the onset of a sudden illness and Stori comforted her through the night, with plans to leave in the morning. The doctors said her mother would recover quickly and head home in a few days; however, that was not the case.

The summer before Sean’s sophomore year of high school, in 2016, he found himself somewhere he had ever imagined: sitting in a Valerie’s House peer grief support group trying to find the words to talk about his brother.

Life for many children and families of Valerie's House has been especially dark over the past four months. Virtual grief groups have been a success, but families miss being face-to-face, and they need the human connection of their friends and counselors. Ryan, 10, and Cadence, 8, pictured above with Mom April, will be two of the first children back Monday when groups resume at the house.

After the death of his mother, eight-year-old Grady Bonin moved in with neighbors Chris and Tom Patricca. It took some time to adjust to living with the Patricca’s and their three children, but Grady has come to enjoy the new family dynamic. This is their story.

Josselin (JJ), Emely and Kealy began attending Valerie’s House in 2017 after their mother died from a sudden brain aneurysm. The family was at a loss for how to cope.

"After my sisters and I came to Valerie's House, we loved it," said JJ. "We realized we were not the only ones who felt lost, scared and alone."

Seven--year-old Sydney sat alone at her teacher’s desk while many of her classmates pestered her with questions. “Are you okay, Sydney?” they asked.

Sydney may have been in school that day, but her mind was somewhere else. Her older sister, Megan, had just entered her class and confirmed her worst fear. Their mother’s long and difficult battle with cancer was over. She had passed away.