Jocelyn and Addison Aquilino, lost their father to suicide in 2014 when they were 10 and 8, respectively. Two years later, their mother enrolled them in Comfort Zone Camp , a nonprofit bereavement camp for children who have lost a loved one. The organization offers weekend camps for children impacted by all types of loss, including some, like the one the Aquilinos attended, specifically designed for kids who’ve impacted by suicide.
The sisters had attended other grief camps that didn’t work for them so they were skeptical about their first weekend at Comfort Zone, located about two hours away from their hometown of Marlton, New Jersey. Grief and death are often considered taboo topics, especially when it involves a suicide or homicide, according to research published in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness . Bereavement for these kinds of deaths is more isolating, as many people, especially those not directly impacted, are uncomfortable talking about the circumstances surrounding the death, or even the person who died.
The Aquilino sisters refrained from talking about their grief and emotions until they attended camp and found themselves surrounded by others with shared experiences. “I didn’t like people. I was scared of meeting new people.
But as time went on and I learned about other kids with my same story, and I even met adults who had gone through the same thing, it was eye-opening to see that I was not alone in this journey,” Addison tells Fortune . The.
