After a three-year search, Battle Ground Senior Citizens Inc. will launch a monthly grief support group this October, led by Michelle Bader Ebersole, a Ridgefield resident certified specialist in the Grief Recovery Method.
The group will meet the first Tuesday of every month from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the senior center at 116 NE Third Ave., Battle Ground.
Battle Ground Senior Citizens Inc. President Sharon Wodtke said local seniors have been asking for this for years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The No. 1 item on (our annual) survey is ‘where is our grief class,’” she said. “I got a standing ovation when I announced it at lunch yesterday.”
The Battle Ground Senior Citizens Inc. board’s search began three years ago, but it was prolonged as the group struggled to find someone with extensive knowledge on grief education and exercises. When Ebersole came forward, Wodtke said, “It was a perfect fit.”
Ebersole is the founder of Widow Goals, a nonprofit she created after losing her first husband to cancer in 2020. When she struggled to find resources for widows, she decided to start her own group. Since then, Widow Goals groups have expanded to more than 30 cities across the U.S. and into Canada.
“It started because there was a need that I couldn't find anywhere, and so I began it,” she said.
She also became a certified Grief Recovery Method specialist after completing a several-week-long program that helps her educate others about grief. Having a master’s degree in education, Ebersole enjoys teaching others how to confront grief.
Her work now includes monthly widow meetups, grief recovery courses, retreats, a podcast called “Widowed Too Soon,” and her recently published book “Widow Goals: Steps to Finding Peace When You Lose Your Spouse.”
She is also a mother of three and a partner, having remarried two years ago, the favorite among her many titles.
“It’s sometimes (overwhelming). Like, ‘which lane am I in today, what am I doing?’” she said. “But I feel blessed to do this. I was a teacher before Luke died. I taught in many places in Clark County, but I feel like I’m teaching in a different way now, and I’m excited for where I’m at.”
Ebersole said the Battle Ground support group will blend both structured education and community connection.
“I'm very excited about this program because it's kind of a mix of two different things I do,” she said. “We'll do some icebreaker events, and then, each month, I'm gonna have a lesson I do about grief.”
She said lessons may include grief myths, navigating holidays and other topics seniors often face. Participants will also be given practical tools and time for discussion.
“It's also just important to have those tools if they're not sure how to deal with grief they're gonna get some education on that,” Ebersole said. “And then, I do think again the biggest thing is the community. They're gonna find other people who get it.”
Ebersole said seniors in particular carry unique challenges.
“Imagine you enter this world and you have a backpack. Everybody has a backpack,” she said. “And everything, every time you have a loss, there's a rock that goes into it. And so, over time, these rocks, like, it piles up and piles up, and so in grief recovery, we help identify the losses and pull them out.”
She said this is why seniors especially benefit from spaces to share their experiences and lighten that burden.
However, the upcoming group will be more than a place to talk about loss.
“We have fun, we laugh,” she said. “We go through those hard things and we talk about the hard things, but we also have fun because we should have joy after grief.”
