Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Michele Neff Hernandez, the author of “Different After You: Rediscovering Yourself and Healing After Grief and Trauma.”
Michele Neff Hernandez, is an advocate, teacher, leader and author who exemplifies the meaning of personal growth, transformation and healing following one of life’s most tragic and traumatic events: the death of a spouse.
In 2005, when Michele Neff Hernandez was only 35 years old with 3 children under 15 and 3 step-children in their late teens, her husband Phillip was suddenly killed in a cycling accident, plunging her into the devastating world of grief, despair, loneliness and profound heartbreak. Over the next year, as she struggled through unknown emotional territory, she conducted in-depth interviews of 30 different widows across America.
That experience led her to create a non-profit organization called Soaring Spirits International, whose mission is to provide a space for widowed people to connect, to foster resilience, and to develop resources for grief recovery and the successful rebuilding of meaningful and satisfying lives. Soaring Spirits International is the premier peer-based support organization for widows in the world, guiding people from great pain to personal empowerment.
Michele Neff Hernandez is also the creator and director of the innovative Camp Widow Program. She’s won numerous awards for her work helping thousands of people navigate widowhood, and in 2021, she was named a CNN Hero. In addition to being the CEO of Soaring Spirits International and the executive director of Soaring Spirits Canada, she’s also the director of the Soaring Spirits Resilience Center located in Kerrville, Texas, whose mission is to research and build resilience in people who are bereaved.
Michele Neff Hernandez has also written a compelling and insightful book entitled, “Different After You: Rediscovering Yourself and Healing After Grief and Trauma”, in which she shares how she took the worst tragedy of her life – the loss of her beloved husband – and developed the coping mechanisms and skills to transform her pain into healing and positive change, and to turn surviving into thriving. This heartfelt and very helpful book is relevant not only to those who’ve become widowed, but to anyone who’s suffered ANY kind of catastrophic loss due to illness, divorce, an accident, the death of a family member or close friend, and even the loss of a career or a longtime home.
Harvey Brownstone is a retired judge of the Ontario Court of Justice and was the first openly gay judge in Canada. He is also the bestselling author of “Tug of War: A Judge’s Verdict on Separation, Custody Battles and the Bitter Realities of Family Court” and hosted “Family Matters with Justice Harvey Brownstone,” a television talk show on matters involving the family justice system.
After a distinguished legal career, Harvey was appointed a judge at the age of 38 in 1995. He has presided in family and criminal courts. He has been a trailblazer in several ways. He was the first openly gay judge in Canada. He was the first sitting judge in the world to write a national best seller and to host a TV talk show.
Harvey has been a role model and icon in the LGBTQ community. When same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada in 2003, he was the only judge to make himself publicly available to officiate at weddings for lesbian and gay couples travelling to Toronto from all over the world to get married. In 2007, he officiated at the wedding of Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, the American couple whose marriage triggered the 2013 United States Supreme Court decision overturning the definition of “spouse” in the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
In February 2021, Harvey launched his online talk show “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” on his own YouTube channel. He saw this as an interesting hobby. Within several months, the show attracted hundreds of thousands – and then eventually, millions – of viewers. Because of the overwhelming success of the show, Harvey decided to retire from the judiciary on December 31, 2021 after having presided as a full-time judge for 26 1/2 years. Free from the constraints imposed upon judges regarding the expression of opinions and the endorsement of private enterprise, Harvey now happily devotes his full-time attention to hosting “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” as a regular member of the public – albeit one with a rather illustrious and unique career history.
Watch Michele Neff Hernandez on Harvey Brownstone Interviews on Youtube here:
The official website for Harvey Brownstone Interviews may be found at https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com
Get “The Talk Show Blend” – Coffee For The Modern Day Trailblazer! By Harvey Brownstone from Breakfast At Dominique’s available at https://www.HollywoodBlends.com
For more information about Harvey Brownstone, here’s his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Brownstone