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 Kinzley, 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 Kinzley are now grieving much more. The Lampila family lost all their belongings as a result of Hurricane Ian.

They are currently staying in a 32-foot by 7-foot trailer with three dogs. What they have left fits in about four plastic storage bins.

“Going and cleaning up my kid’s toys and their memories was a lot harder than I thought,” Jeff said. “Their memories that they were creating are all destroyed now.”

The family lost photo albums, the children’s artwork, a baseball card collection, and so much more. Unfortunately, almost nothing survived, and these sentimental items cannot be replaced.

Jeff saved his wife’s ashes despite the wreckage, and the kids salvaged a few things themselves.

“If anything happened to her ashes, I would be really devastated,” Jeff said. “The kids and I like to put her in places that we visit while we check off the bucket list. I needed to make sure those survived for myself and my kids.”

In many ways, the loss suffered from the storm has rehashed the old grief of the kids losing their mother. Not only are the children grieving their mom, but they’ve lost their sense of normalcy once again and are also grieving life as they’ve known it.

Valerie’s House stepped in to help this family get back up on their feet.

“Valerie’s House has really opened up for my kids,” Jeff said. “They have helped financially, planned amazing events for the kids, and more. I am so grateful for everything they’ve done.”

At Valerie’s House, families always come first.

Jeff, Finn, and Kinzley are a family of great strength who have moved past this tragedy to find hope for the future once again.

“Grief has brought us closer together in certain aspects because we’ve already dealt with so much,” Jeff said. “We are living day by day right now. We’ve moved on from the negative and are turning it into a positive.”