About the Event
Join COPE in a special panel on sibling loss. Lynn, Molly and Alyson share their differing grief journeys, how finding each other and sharing their experiences changed the course of their lives. They’ve found value in each other and the sibling loss community they’re building. They will discuss, and emphasize the significance of, community and reassure anyone in doubt, that it is never too late to find your people.
About our Facilitators:
Lynn Shattuck
When Lynn Shattuck was 24, her brother Will died from heroin and alcohol. Experiencing the loss of her only sibling altered her life irrevocably; while her peers continued to grapple with the usual ups and downs of young adulthood, she was catapulted back into her childhood home, paralyzed by grief.
Lynn has been publishing essays on the topic of sibling loss for more than a decade. She was a paid columnist at Elephant Journal for ten years; several of her essays on the topic of grief and sibling loss have gone viral. Her writing has also appeared on The Huffington Post, Human Parts, Vice, The Fix and Al Jazeera.
Lynn holds a Master of Individualized Arts from Goddard College’s Transformative Language Arts program. Her work in the fields of grief, loss and trauma has included co-facilitating a support group for grieving teenagers, training police officers on best practices when delivering a death notification, training crisis response volunteers and facilitating expressive writing groups for people living with cancer as well as those experiencing grief.
Molly Fowkes
In 2014, Molly lost her older brother, Jimmy, to brain cancer. His battle with the disease lasted over eight years. She was 17 and he was 21 when he passed away.
From a young age, Molly knew her passion for helping others would be within the healthcare space. After pursuing degrees in Product Design and UX Design, she began working as a designer in healthcare, with a specific focus on cancer. Her first role was working for Blue Note Therapeutics, a prescription digital therapeutics company singularly dedicated to transforming mental health care for cancer patients.
Molly is currently a designer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she sits at the intersection of design and healthcare to solve complex problems and generate long-term, meaningful impact for those directly impacted by cancer.
In 2022, Molly began working with Lynn Shattuck and Alyson Shelton on their website “Loss of a Lifetime”, which aims to offer community and resources to those who have lost a sibling. Additionally, Molly is a contributing author to the soon-to-be-published sibling loss anthology, The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss and Loneliness.
Alyson Shelton
Alyson’s brother Michael died, in a hiking accident, in the summer of 1984. She was 10. She remembers hearing a lot of, “Well, you have three other brothers.” And “He’s only your half-brother,” instead of, “I’m sorry.” Or, “How devastating.” There were no conversations or resources, just the abiding grief. When Alyson first read Lynn’s writing about sibling loss, she felt seen and paused to consider how much losing Michael shaped her life. Getting to know Lynn and other siblings, working on this anthology and creating a resource she always wanted feels significant and life-changing.
Her writing is widely published at outlets including The New York Times, Ms. and The Rumpus. She’s deeply proud of her collaborations with other female creatives, most notably, the comic, Reburn and the film, To Hold The Night. She’s anthologized in collections including Comics Lit Vol. 1 (Accomplishing Innovation Press), Broken Free: Writers on Estrangement (Catapult 2026) and The Loss of a Lifetime: Siblings on Love, Loss and Hope (Contributor and Co-Editor with Lynn Shattuck). She’s best known for her Instagram Live series inspired by George Ella Lyon’s poem, Where I’m From where she’s hosted close to 200 writers. The poem also provides the spine for her forthcoming memoir.
Website: https://www.lossofalifetime.com/
Instagram: @lossofalifetime @byalysonshelton @lynn_shattuck
Substack: https://lossofalifetime.substack.com/
___
The information shared in this program is not intended to act as a substitute for any legal and mental health advice concerning individual situations; neither COPE, its Board of Directors, staff and personnel shall be responsible for any outcomes arising form any information or exercises provided in this program.