Wednesday Sep 03, 2025

07 | Losing a Parent to Suicide at Age 11 | Grief, Faith & Healing Through Art feat. Monica Brown

⚠️ Content Notice This episode discusses grief, trauma, and the loss of a parent to suicide. Some parts may be difficult to hear. Please listen with care.

🆘 If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or visit 988lifeline.org. You are not alone.

📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NZOnp0t-o8k

Episode Summary

Some grief comes with a clear explanation. Some comes wrapped in shock, silence, and questions that nobody around you knows how to answer.

In this episode of A Catholic Journey, Jessica sits down with artist, educator, and grief advocate Monica Brown to talk about what it's like to lose a parent to suicide at age 11 — and the decades-long journey of learning how to carry that grief with faith, creativity, and community.

Monica shares how she went from a quiet, introverted kid who suddenly felt the pressure to prove everything was fine, to a woman who is now creating intentional space for grief conversations — one honest story at a time. From working with horses on a Montana ranch to leading art therapy workshops for bereaved mothers, Monica's story is a testament to what can grow out of the kind of pain nobody talks about.

💛 "Healing happens in community. We need each other to witness our grief — and sometimes that witness is what allows the next step of healing to happen." — Monica Brown

In This Episode, You'll Hear:

⭐ What it felt like to lose her dad at age 11 — the shock, the confusion, and the question she asked her principal that she'll never forget

⭐ The silence around suicide — why nobody explained it to her as a child, and why she's still learning how to talk about it as an adult

⭐ Compound trauma and the performing child — how Monica became extroverted overnight as a coping mechanism and what that cost her

⭐ Parentification and the lost childhood — changing diapers at 11, living at friends' houses by 12, and finally breaking down at 21

⭐ How horses, art, and solitude became her healing — from a Montana dude ranch to a college gallery, and why getting her body involved was the key

⭐ The gift of faith from a young age — and what it means to believe in and out of season

⭐ Leading an art therapy workshop for bereaved mothers — and the overwhelming, unexpected day that brought her full circle back to her childhood church

⭐ Monica's closing reflection — why we hide our pain like Adam and Eve, and why community is where healing actually happens

Scripture Referenced in This Episode

Psalm 34:18
Romans 8:18
2 Corinthians 1:3–4

About Monica Brown Monica Brown is an artist, elementary educator, and grief advocate from Chester County, Pennsylvania. She is passionate about creating space for honest grief conversations and using creativity as a pathway to healing. Monica has led art therapy workshops for bereaved mothers and is currently exploring ways to bring grief advocacy more intentionally into her work and writing.

Connect with Monica

🌐 Website: studio314mb.wixsite.com/monicabrown
📝 Substack: studio314bymb.substack.com
📱 Instagram: @studio314.mb
📸 Monica's senior thesis show photos: View on Facebook

Listener Reflection Is there a grief in your life that you've been hiding — from others or from yourself? What would it look like to let someone witness it with you? 🙏🏻

Enjoyed This Episode? If this episode touched your heart, it would mean so much if you:

✔️ Subscribed to A Catholic Journey
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