A northern B.C. woman is putting together grief boxes for people experiencing loss

A woman in Fort St. John in northern B.C. is working on a new project to help people coping with grief from loss.

Connie Greyeyes, who is from the Bigstone Cree Nation, started putting together grief boxes, filling them with items like journals, candles, and gift cards for food, as well as phone numbers people can call for support, such as counsellors.

"When I experienced my own losses, many friends and family would stop in and drop off a gift basket or some food and it was so appreciated during that time," Greyeyes told CBC Radio.

She says the first 20 grief boxes are ready to go this week, and that she co-ordinates with people who have messaged her by email or on Facebook to deliver the boxes.

Greyeyes, who works for the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) northern region coordinator, started making the grief boxes a few weeks ago with her family, but the IRSSS has since supported her project and now works with her to produce them.

Chantelle Sands, a registered clinical counsellor based in the Lower Mainland who is a member of the Kaska Dena, says the boxes are a beautiful and creative idea to connect with people in the community and can make "a world of difference" for someone grieving.

"It's just so important to gather around and collectively hold someone up," she said. "Grief shows up in so many different ways for so many different people and it can often look like it's forcing us into isolation and we don't want that."

Greyeyes has helped people cope with loss as part of her job. 

"I've gone to people's homes and dropped off food and it's something as simple as offering somebody a meal so that they don't have to stand at a stove and try and feed everybody, it's almost like a little sense of relief," she said.

She says since she started putting the boxes together, companies in the area have been reaching out to show their support through donations, including local businesses Cass's Kitchen, a bakery and confectionery store, and fitness gym CrossFit Exhale.

Greyeyes says she's meeting with the Fort St. John Palliative Care Society soon to discuss making boxes specifically for children.

"As much as a compassionate and empathetic, amazing parents we can be we do have shortcomings when it comes to grief and and we need to be reminded that we need to take care of the children as well," she said.

Terriea Harris, an Indigenous registered therapeutic counsellor of Dakota and Columbian heritage based in the Sunshine Coast, says this is important, because many are socialized to dismiss their feelings.

"When we're giving the message, especially to children, that grief is okay and we're here for you, that's a vital critical message," she said.

Greyeyes originally intended the boxes for Indigenous families, but the quickly growing support has made her decide to offer them to anyone.

"What we're hoping is that it takes off and we can also try and get support for other regions and areas that want to do this, it's just such a beautiful idea."