Summer Series: Finding Light in the Darkness with Emma Grey

Wild + (finally fcking) Free: Real, Raw Stories of Metamorphosis, Growth and Evolution

Emma Grey is a novelist, feature writer, photographer, professional speaker and accountability coach. She has been writing fiction since she first fell for Anne of Green Gables at fourteen and is the author of the YA novels Unrequited: Boy band meets girl, Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess, the non-fiction title, I Don’t Have Time (co-authored with Audrey Thomas), and the parenting memoir Wits’ End Before Breakfast! Confessions of a Working Mum. Along with her schoolfriend, dual ARIA-winning composer, Sally Whitwell, Emma co-wrote two musicals, Deadpan Anti-Fan and Fairytale Derail, based on her teen novels.

She wrote her first adult novel, The Last Love Note (released 24th January - order on presale here, in the wake of her husband’s death. It’s a fictional tribute to their love, an attempt to articulate the magnitude of her loss and a life-affirming commitment to hope.

Well this was always going to be a beautiful conversation with Emma, a woman I have been connected with via a mutual friend, and last saw in person just before the most unfathomable tragedy struck her life. Since then, I have been observing Emma and her courageous family step through grief, and continually chose, again and again to lean into joy, connection and meaning together.

In this episode, Emma shares:

- The unexpected death of husband and love her life Jeff when she was 42 and her daughters were in Year 10 and 12 (with all those final exams hurdles) and her son was just 5, and her Mum was progressing with advanced dementia

- The impact a comment from Emma’s friend Rebecca Sparrow who lost her stillborn daughter said about wanting her daughter’s death to turn the light up in her life, not down; and the choices she has been making since the day after Jeff’s funeral to make meaning, choose light and focus on joy in each grief-drowned moment

- The gift of a major creative endeavour co-writing and launching a High School Musical with school friend Sal and drama teacher Ness in the first year after Jeff’s died and how through the blessings of glitter cannons and disco balls, this provided the perfect distraction from to her overwhelming grief

- Emma’s decision to move out of the home where Jeff died and build a new home (starting with literally sitting in the dirt visioning her desires for a light-filled sanctuary) has been an essential step in the grieving process.
Order a copy of the Last Love Note right here.

And find Emma online here
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