The Dinner Party Labs

I'm helping to raise funding for The Dinner Party (TDP), a non-profit that connects young adults grieving in isolation with the supportive community of care they need.

I learned about The Dinner Party (TDP) a few weeks after my mom died but it felt intimidating to join a group of strangers & open up about my grief. It wasn't until a few years later, in the midst of a lonely pandemic, that I finally felt ready to start talking about the people I missed. Since the moment I found my people through TDP, I've come to embrace my grief journey and what it has taught me -- that we should always keep talking about the people we miss.

So in the spirit of sharing stories, these are photos of my mom (Curly) & my eldest cousin (Christian Pierre aka "Bull"). Both were multi-marathon runners (my cousin finished at least 5 & my mom finished 7) and they tried for years to get me into the sport they loved so much. For most of my life, the thought of ME running a marathon has been both laughable and terrifying --laughable because I actively avoided running in every P.E. class and terrifying because my cousin died while running; he had a heart attack at only 28 years old. With one phone call, running went from being something that I just didn't care for into a grief trigger.

In my mid-thirties and seven year into grieving the loss of my mom, I started to wonder if long-distance running could be a way for me to connect with her & my cousin in their absence. Could I find out why they loved it? Turns out, yes! (I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm 1000% slower than they were and still complain a lot along the way.) And on March 16, 2025, I finished my first marathon :D