Imagine the unimaginable. Your children are at school. You’ve done your best to keep their lives normal — as normal as you can — while their father fights a swift and brutal cancer. And then the call comes, your partner and the parent of your children has died.
For Megan Sage, parent to Michael (12 years old) and Mason (9 years old), this was the one of the most frightening moments of her life. Megan’s husband, Marc, who swelled with pride when people remarked how much his sons looked like him, had died of stage 4 metastatic thyroid cancer just six weeks after his diagnosis.
That day in December of 2016, Megan found the courage to tell her sons that their dad had died. “We held each other for a long time,” she shared.
Michael’s elementary school teacher tried to give Michael the support he needed to feel comfortable at school, but “he often came home frustrated because his friends didn’t know what to say to him about his dad. And when we tried to talk about it at home, I cried,” Megan said about this time.
That’s when the Sages started attending support groups at Dougy Center.
Michael shared, “When I went to school my friends didn’t understand what I was going through. Then I went to The Dougy Center and I found kids like me who had lost someone they loved. It was very comforting. It’s easy to make friends at Dougy Center and there are lots of opportunities to share your feelings.”
It is thanks to supporters like you that Dougy Center is here for families like the Sages. When a parent dies it is a major financial blow to any family. Because The Dougy Center services are free, Megan didn’t have to worry about juggling graduate school and finding the funds to get Michael and Mason the support they needed.
Today, the “M Sages” — a healing family of three, continue to attend Dougy Center for grief support groups every other week. Michael and Mason look forward to seeing their Dougy Center friends and being in a place that helps them feel comfortable talking about their dad.
