Local

‘Such a blessing’: Growing nonprofit helps young people through loss of a parent

CHARLOTTE — Side by side, Ali Price and Haven Gaylord shared with Channel 9 their deeply personal grief that brought them together.

“So I lost my mom at 20 when I was in college to ovarian cancer,” shared Price.

“She died when I was 4, so I was little and I didn’t really understand it,” Gaylord told Channel 9′s Elsa Gillis.

Price said she was in college when her mom passed.

“It’s a lifelong loss no matter what age you are, for me I was on the precipice of life right?” she said. “When you’re getting married, you want your mom, when you start having kids you want your mom, raising kids, you want your mom -- it just kind of never goes away but you can survive it, and you can thrive and live life and that’s what she would have wanted.”

Price and Gaylord are both involved in the organization empowerHER, which is an international nonprofit that’s growing in Charlotte. Its mission is to empower, support, and connect children and young adults who have experienced the loss of a parent through events and a mentor program that include a Mother’s Day retreat. Their programs are non-therapeutic, volunteer-driven and are offered at no charge to the family.

“It’ll be like, I’ll go to a school dance, or it’ll be my birthday and it just comes back to you more,” Gaylord said. “And just to have this community of girls that you can just talk, and you don’t even need to talk about the fact that you don’t have a mom, but you have that underlying connection of ‘yeah, I had some type of trauma in my life and I understand what that kind of pain is -- just be able to talk with them and be with them has been such a blessing.”

The high school junior wants to encourage others to get involved. Both Price and Gaylord have found support in the organization for themselves while supporting others.

“It feels like a way to honor my mom as well,” Price said.

“The word ‘mom’ for me, I couldn’t take it for a really long time,” Gaylord said. “I remember being in middle school, lower school and that was a really sensitive word for me. Anytime anyone talked about their mom, I couldn’t say the word mom for a really long time. But as I’ve gotten older and seen how all these people have been able to be strong and keep on going and finding a way to turn a tragedy into so great of a community, with such a great organization you can encourage people to not be so scared of their loss,” said Gaylord.

(WATCH BELOW: Nonprofit helps Charlotte couple buy home, plan for future)