This is Episode 70 of the VulnerABLE Podcast!

When the sudden passing of her husband happened, instead of help and support she was told she was grieving the "wrong" way. Now as the Bad Widow, she's helping others grieve their loss in a better way!

She grew up with 3 younger brothers, one of which had a genetic disease which meant they needed to be careful around him even though they weren’t sure why. Then when she was 25 years old her brother would pass away, and she was left feeling a bit lost because for many years the attention was on him. It caused her to begin looking at the world and life a different way, which kind of isolated her from her peers. At the same time it caused her to be empathetic towards others at a very early age. Years later her husband of almost 20 years would be diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. The end of his life was approaching suddenly, this forced them to begin taking chances, and live life as fully as possible until he was gone. Then after his passing she found the grieving process very difficult and was surprised to find very little support or information on how to process what she was going through. She was told she was doing things wrong, and she gave herself the name Bad Widow. Now she’s using her experience and things she learned in the process to help others grieve difficult loses in their own lives.

For more information on Alison Pena you can check out her website: 

Website: https://badwidow.com/