The Sudden Loss Survival Guide

Chelsea Hanson is a nationally recognized grief educator and founder of With Sympathy Gifts and Keepsakes, which is an online memorial gift store and grief support center.


Hanson found her true purpose in grief support and legacy work and graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison as a grief support specialist with certifications in holistic life coaching and life legacy preservation. By connecting her 20 years of business expertise with her true calling, she is an entrepreneur who specializes in grief products and programs to help others transform personal setbacks into opportunities to live a meaningful life.


Chelsea transcended unexpected loss over time, losing both her father and mother at a young age. She now lives and works in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with her husband and son.

Marty Tousley, RN, MS, FT, is both a bereaved parent and a bereaved child. She has focused her practice on issues of grief, loss, and transition for more than 40 years. As a grief counselor, Tousley administers and moderates GriefHealingDiscussionGroups.com and runs GriefHealing.com.

Tousley is the author of Finding Your Way through Grief: A Guide for the First Year and The Final Farewell: Preparing for and Mourning the Loss of Your Pet. She is a frequent contributor to healthcare journals, newsletters, and magazines for the public, and has written several articles and book chapters in the professional nursing and medical literature. Her online articles appear on the Grief Healing Blog, as well as the Open to Hope Foundation and the Grief Toolbox websites.

She is a registered nurse with a master's degree in Advanced Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing. She has earned the Board Certified TeleMental Health Provider (BC-TMH) credential and was awarded the Fellow in Thanatology (FT) certification by the Association for Death Education and Counseling.

She and her husband Michael live Sarasota, Florida.

Jan Warner's husband died in 2009, and she started the blog, Grief Speaks Out, which continues today. When Warner later created Grief Speaks Out, an online community, she never imagined that it would become a loving, supportive community to over 2 million people worldwide.





Warner is the author of Grief Day by Day: Simple Practices and Daily Guidance for Living with Loss. She has a Master's degree in Counseling and has worked in child abuse and suicide prevention. She owned the bookstore, The Turning Page. She has produced documentaries including The Last Laugh by Ferne Pearlstein and Poetry of Resilience by Katja Esson. She also produced the off-Broadway play, Party Face.





Jan is an avid traveler and has been to all 7 continents. Her favorite thing, though, is spending time with her daughter Erin and her granddaughter Gwendolyn. She lives in New York City.