WAY member Hannah features in ITVBe documentary

November 2022

On 1 December, Kelsey Parker’s documentary Life After Tom is due to air on ITVBe at 9pm. In the first episode, Kelsey joins a WAY meet up and talks to Kent WAY membersSarah, Hannah and Michael - and WAY Ambassador Emma - about their experiences of being widowed young. 

Read Hannah's story

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Hannah was widowed in 2016 when her husband died of lymphoma. She was just 34 at the time and has two boys who were then 2 and 7. In the years since being widowed, Hannah has totally changed careers – and is planning to train as a teacher. We asked her why she decided to take part in the documentary…

“I wanted to get involved with the documentary for a number of reasons. I feel like so much of life after bereavement of a partner is negative, and all about the struggles. I wanted to put across that, sometimes, a positive can come out of such a negative experience. I was also eager to talk about the importance of support for children in school following the death of a parent, and that schools should appreciate that this type of bereavement isn’t ‘done and dusted’ after a course of counselling; that it recurs at various times, and can be without a seemingly obvious trigger. 

Schools can also be invaluable as they have more of an ‘outside’ view of the child while also knowing them very well – my youngest’s teacher told me that he was really confused about the order of events and had a ‘confused narrative’. I sorted this out by creating a photo book of my son’s life, which also showed a timeline of his dad’s illness. 

What was the filming like?

The day of the filming was lovely. It felt very much like a ‘normal’ chat, with a lot also being spoken about off-camera as well as on. 

I think the main thing I wanted to get across was not worrying about other people’s expectations. It was clear from what Kelsey said that she had a really good support network, which was great to hear. I also spoke about forging ahead without always thinking ‘what would my husband have wanted for the children’. As my sister once said, ‘he isn’t here – you are!’ 

 

Photo caption: Kelsey meets up with WAY members in Kent as part of ITVBe's Life After Tom documentary.