Good Grief Walking (Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary) began from these recommendations, and continues to provide a regular series of walks that enable grief to have a place and to move, by simply putting one foot in front of the other supported by nature and volunteers who have walked similar paths. The model is adapted into walking groups around the province, including through the PCSBV Living with Loss Group. Nothing is more natural than loss and grief. With a view toward creating more compassionate, grief-friendly communities by connecting with parks and nature we can journey on this walk of life, together. It is from this vantage point that my own family walked alongside my Mum, Lucille (pictured here and with my Dad, Howard), in her hospice and palliative home care, and now find places for our grief. In parks and nature, we can all rest in peace!
Nothing is More Natural than Loss and Grief
BY. DR. SONYA JAKUBEC
Nature’s impact on health and wellbeing across the lifespan is well documented with numerous individual, social, community, societal and conservation benefits. It is no surprise that so many moments along life’s journey are connected to parks and nature; big moments (the weddings, babies’ first steps, reunions and memorials) and also the unglamorous, daily walk of life - including the dying and death, mourning and grief. We seek parks and nature to grieve and memorialize. Cemeteries are parks and people also create informal nature ceremonies and memorials. The collection of memorials (picture here) carefully gathered by Crimson Lake park staff tell a story!
Sources: BC Parks Foundation/PaRx. (2023). Why Nature? Peace in the Parks (documentary short film from Alberta Parks on parks and palliative care action research project) Good Grief and the Walk of Life - Voice of the Friends, Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society Newsletter (April 2023) Sonya Jakubec , RN, PhD, is a professor at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Mount Royal University who studies the health and nature connection across the lifespan (including in palliative and grief care). She is an Alberta Parks volunteer and research collaborator and is a volunteer member of the Program Advisory Committee for the PCSBV.
Increasing park access for people in palliative care and caregivers Creating cross-sector communication tools Encouraging grief experiences in parks/nature These experiences and the core value of providing Albertans a lifetime of nature-based experiences, sparked research about palliative care and grief/memorializing in parks with recommendations such as:
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