By Gael Garbarino Cullen
Owning Grief
Widowed Young, How I Discovered Gifts in Loss
In Owning Grief, Gael Garbarino Cullen describes her refusal to let the sudden death of her 40-year-old husband destroy the very fabric of her young family’s life and legacy.
Her intensely personal and moving memoir tells of the irony of finding gifts amid horrific loss, gifts that would later prove invaluable as she battled cancer, recovered from a crippling bicycle accident, and dealt with all the twists and turns that life inevitably throws our way.
This is more than a story of surviving an unspeakable loss. It’s a story of discovery, resilience, and determination.
Presentations
Events
Empower Growth
Meet the Author
Gael Garbarino Cullen
Gael Garbarino Cullen is an accomplished writer and video producer as well as a longtime TV and radio news reporter who covered everything from presidential politics to World Series baseball during her career.
She loves rock and roll music and is an avid Detroit Tiger baseball fan, a nod to her hometown roots.
She’s passionate about running, not too far or too fast, although she did manage to muscle through two marathons.
She lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she is lucky enough to share time with her four daughters and their families, including a growing number of grandchildren.
Read the story behind the book – THE BACK STORY.
In The Media
Interview on WISN 12, Milwaukee, Jan 10, 2023
Reviews
Sanchez
This book is a gift.
As soon as I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down.
I felt so connected to every part of this memoir, and it is not just because I have experienced loss myself with the sudden passing of my dad. It captures the grief experience in such rawness, such honesty.
This book will help many people see grief through the eyes of a single mother, which has already helped me understand my mom’s experience a little better. I look forward to her reading this book, knowing it will resonate loudly and make her feel understood.
Natalie K. Sanchez, Author – The Language of Loss
Radowski
A resource and inspiration
to anyone who has lost a loved one.
It unflinchingly takes readers through the long and inevitably difficult stages of grief – and yet offers hope that the future can be yours again.
Most meaningfully, it shows that faith, support, and resiliency can bring you a new definition of self.
Steve Radowski, Grieving Parent
Higgs
I am so happy
this will be available to other widows.
I have worked with many who would benefit by learning how the author owned her grief after the sudden death of her husband and then directed that grief into strength to meet the challenges of single parenthood for her precious girls.
Owning Grief is a lesson and an inspiration in overcoming adversity, achieving resiliency, and growing from our shared grief, told in a straightforward and captivating way.
Judy Higgs, MA Counseling Psychology and Co-coordinator, Parish Widows’ Ministry
