Sid Korpi has combined her decades of varied professional experience — as an editor, writer, journalist, English teacher, actor, and ordained minister/animal chaplain — with her lifelong devotion to the animal companions who have blessed and shared her life in creating Good Grief: Finding Peace After Pet Loss.
Surviving a “tsunami of loss” in her own life led to her discovery of spiritual truths that brought her strength and facilitated her heart’s healing. She felt compelled to share these things with others who suffer — often in isolation — from the passing on of their very dearest nonhuman friends, their pets.
She notes, “Unfortunately, our society on the whole discounts their grief as frivolous since they’ve ‘merely lost an animal.’ People often report that they got over the death of a fellow human being easier than they did that of their pet simply because they were given permission to really grieve over the human and thus found the support they needed to process those feelings. This same support is often sorely lacking when the intense feelings of sorrow are a result of pet loss.”
In Good Grief: Finding Peace After Pet Loss, she melds her personal perspectives and stories with those of professionals (such as veterinarians, animal communicators, and religious leaders) and other animal lovers the world over. She hopes to ease the pain of those who feel they are alone in their suffering — because, she has found, nothing could be further from the truth.
“Those of us who share a deep bond with our animal companions are in abundant supply. Too many of us have obviously felt we must keep silent in our anguish or be labeled somehow defective,” she says. “I want this book to end the misperception that we must suffer in solitary confinement and thus prolong, or stay permanently stuck in, our grief.”
Sid Korpi lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband Anthony Kaczor and their eight “mere animal” friends/family members: Ambrose, Blanche, Keely, and Oliver (Westies); Giles and Xander (cats); and Atticus and Scout (finches). She also maintains the Goodgriefpetloss blog.
