Frida Backlund hopes new children’s book will help families talk losing loved ones – Calgary | 24CA News
The lack of a liked one is a troublesome factor to course of at any age.
And explaining grief to kids can convey on a complete new wave of emotion.
It’s a scenario Calgary Flames alternate captain Mikael Backlund and his spouse, Frida, have discovered themselves in as their youngsters, Tillie and Oliver, begin to get a bit older.
When four-year-old Tillie not too long ago began asking questions on her maternal grandma, Frida paused.
She wasn’t prepared to inform her daughter in regards to the lengthy, sleepless nights on a highschool international alternate journey, frantically looking the web for any rationalization her mother Ann’s worsening sickness wasn’t ALS.
Tillie wasn’t sufficiently old to grasp the devastation of Frida returning residence and realizing simply how shortly the illness had already progressed.
Or the ache of claiming goodbye simply three years after Ann’s analysis of the uncommon neurological illness also called Lou Gherig’s Disease.
Instead, Frida needed her youngsters to learn about their charismatic grandmother who by no means didn’t make her chortle.
“I just started trying to explain that she’s always with you. She would never not be with you. This is where she would want to be,” Frida stated.
“We love studying to our youngsters. They find it irresistible. They each love books.
“And so when my daughter when started asking about her grandmother, I really just thought there should be a picture book to show them that they’re always there with them, even though they’re gone.”
Now, Backlund’s first ebook, Our Guardian Angels, is full.
The rhyming kids’s ebook took a couple of yr to complete, with more often than not spent on illustrations of Ann with the grandkids she by no means acquired the prospect to satisfy.
She hopes it will possibly present consolation and be a software for households as they navigate grief.
“For kids who’ve lost someone, it’s just that reading to them and showing that they’re still with you, you just can’t see them,” Frida added.
It’s a sentiment that introduced Frida consolation within the preliminary months after her mother’s passing, particularly when she started courting Mikael and began to navigate life in an unfamiliar Canadian metropolis.
With Ann in thoughts, the couple instantly began in search of methods to provide again.
The Backlunds met with the ALS Society of Alberta to share Frida’s household’s expertise and categorical remorse and frustration at how troublesome it was to obtain well timed in-home care and instruments in Sweden.
“We met with (executive director) Karen Caughey and we were at their location,” Frida recalled “They were like, ‘Well, look, here’s our storage. When our clients, our families need something, they get it right away.’
“It just was like, ‘Okay, we’re doing this.’”
The ALS Society of Alberta’s gear mortgage program lends objects like powered wheelchairs, stair lifts, hospital beds and communication gadgets to households in want, freed from cost.
“One piece of equipment that they can get is an AI computer. So when (patients) lose their ability to speak, they can write with their eyes what they’re trying to say,” Frida stated.
“That took so long for us to get in Sweden that by the time we got the computer, it was too late, she couldn’t speak at all. Thinking back, how much it could have helped the frustration of not being able to communicate that last full year or two… that was fresh in my mind.”
Frida has since arrange annual raffles and occasions like Uncorked for ALS.
Mikael has lengthy pledged $250 for each level he information — matched by the Flames Foundation and KPMG Consulting — to ALS assist and analysis.
And who would’ve guessed: he’s on tempo for a career-best season at 34 years previous with 17 targets and 32 assists by way of 72 video games.
All instructed, they’ve raised greater than $500,000 to battle the illness and enhance the standard of life for these dwelling with it.
The Backlunds have additionally hosted greater than 70 households impacted by ALS at Flames video games in hopes of making long-lasting reminiscences.
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