Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
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Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
What If Grief Deserved A Full Year Of Care with Kelly Edmondson
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The condolences pour in, the flowers fill the room, and then the funeral ends. What happens when the hardest part of grief shows up weeks later, when everyone else has gone back to normal?
We sit down with Kelly Edmondson, a trauma ICU and ER nurse turned grief counselor, whose life changed when her 28-year-old son Darius died suddenly from an epilepsy-related seizure. Kelly shares the moment that cracked something open for her: Mother’s Day. She expected darkness, but her family created space to speak his name, laugh, remember, and breathe. That experience exposed a problem most people miss. Support is often intense at first, then disappears right when grief becomes a daily, recurring reality.
From there, we dig into the real health impact of bereavement and unresolved grief. We talk mental health, sleep, stress, and the “broken heart” effect, plus why asking “What do you need?” can be the wrong move when someone is overwhelmed. Kelly explains how she built Timely Presence, a year-long grief support service that sends personalized memorial gifts on the dates that hit hardest, including birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and the anniversary of death. We also discuss miscarriage and stillbirth grief, and why being remembered can be a lifeline.
If you want practical grief support ideas, meaningful ways to help widows and grieving families, and a reminder that showing up matters, press play. Subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review with the one thing you wish people understood about grief.
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Welcome And Why Support Fades
SPEAKER_00Well, hello, and welcome to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine, and today we've got a very special guest. Her name is Kelly Edmondson. And Kelly's got quite an interesting story. After working as a trauma nurse and enduring the loss of her son Darius, Kelly saw firsthand how support for grieving families often falls away after the funeral. And so she founded a company called Timely Presence to transform that pattern. And her service is not just a single gesture, but structured support over an entire year. And I we were just chatting for a second. I said, wow, that's brand new out here. So, Kelly, welcome to the show. It's great to meet you. Nice to meet you, also. Thanks for having me. Well, it's my pleasure. So why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself? You were a trauma nurse, and and then it sounds like you endured some serious trauma.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So trauma ICU and ER nursing. I've been a nurse for
Life As A Trauma Nurse
SPEAKER_0125 years. It sounds obscene to say that.
SPEAKER_00It's true. I hear you. I hear you.
SPEAKER_01And started out really taking care of some of the sickest patients ever. So, you know, car accidents, gunshot wounds, you know, people with lives interrupted. And I had really the sacred responsibility of being in very intimate spaces with people at the end of life. And so I have been with hundreds of families as they've said their final goodbyes. I've I've had to tell dozens of mothers that their sons were gone. Wow. And really think that I have a knack for that. My maiden name is Thomas. So they used to call me Trauma Thomas.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01And they would call me into those cases because I really felt like it was a calling to be able to sit in those sacred moments with people. And I did it well. I did it well.
SPEAKER_00That is uh like you were saying, that it that is truly a sacred time. It's you know, as I get older, I've dealt with more and more deaths, and I've I've I've been with a number of people as they took their last breath. And it's it's a it's a it's a powerful and deeply moving time that if you're able to share that with family and and offer you know some kind of comfort, it's it it can be hugely valuable. And you know, and that's when all the all the difficulty really begins, you know. Like I don't know how many people really prepare for it, you know. A lot of times things happen suddenly or or you just don't think they're gonna happen. And then all of a sudden you've got, you know, to deal with, you know, a funeral and and and memorial service and and all of the you know life issues that you know, death certificates and transferring things and dealing with debts or whatever. I mean, it could be anything, right? Or you know, or if it's your own child, I I couldn't imagine that, but I know you've been through it. And I know people who have lost you know their children, and like you said, life gets interrupted in all day, you know. I I just getting to the other side of a big cancer battle, and my life got interrupted in a big way, and I, you know, came to the spot where I thought, you know, I had to deal with that, I have to I have to reckon with it. And it's a difficult thing to think about when you're alive. And so it is and I think a lot of people they put so many things aside, you know, they don't think about they don't think about you know the relationships and the all the you know the things that we find so important when we're just going through our normal life, and then all of a sudden, you know, the funeral's over. And everybody's you know had their big moment, shared their condolences and and all of that. And then, you know, my wife's a widow, so she's told me a lot of the stories about afterward. And it's like there was a big period of her life where she just felt all alone, and there was, you know, nobody around, and nobody, you know, everybody said what they had to say, and now what, you know. And so it sounds like you've you found a way to kind of reach into that that difficult time.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, you're you're you're exactly right. People do, they come, they want to support you, right? People want to do the right thing, so they come, they bring flowers and plants and food that you you're not ready to eat. And you know, all the things. You know, and I always say the hardest, the hardest days come later. They're later. Um, my hard day was he died in January. My son died in January, Darius had epilepsy,
Losing Darius And Mother’s Day Turning Point
SPEAKER_01okay, and had a seizure in his sleep.
SPEAKER_00How old was he?
SPEAKER_01He was 28 years old and just getting just taking off life, bought his first house to flip. He was a realtor, he was just just catching astride. And we grew up together. I mean, married very young, so I had him at 18, so we were friends, right? And you know that that he died in January, and Mother's Day's in May. Wow. And um you don't you don't realize how much celebration there is for Mother's Day. Every commercial, every grocery store, right? It's everywhere. And Ray was struggling with the anxiety of preparing for that that day. And my mom and my sister, my niece, my daughter, my son's girlfriend, they all came and like surprised me with memories of him.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01And what would have been the darkest day was made lighter because I was able to do the only thing I wanted to do that day, which was talk about him. And they made it safe to, I wasn't making people uncomfortable with bringing him back. Um I I wasn't uh alone in this, they were there, and they said in that moment, everybody should have this. Wow, it changed the whole, it changed that entire weekend, which started so bleak and dark for me, and it made it a weekend full of love and laugh, laughter and memories, and it was gorgeous, it was gorgeous.
SPEAKER_00Wow, and how how how long since your son has passed?
SPEAKER_01This so he passed January of 2023.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. So it's very recent. Wow, okay. Wow, so this is and and this was they just got together and decided to do this out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they they just they just did, you know. I I I they just did. They just I just have been blessed with good people and they just did. Wow, and that became an idea that I hope sparks a difference in the way that we treat people who are dealing with loss.
SPEAKER_00Wow. So so this impacted you to the point where you realized that, you know, if you had some way that you can offer some scenario that's even like that, that you know you're gonna help. You know, like you said, the the darkness, you know, you have you go through your grieving stages, whatever they want to call them, but it keeps repeating because the people are still gone. That's right.
SPEAKER_01And the birthdays come.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah. And and each time that there's that reminder, and there's that, you know, and and like you said, you start talking about the past, and people get a little squeamish, you know, they don't know what to do, they don't know what to say. So unless somebody brings that to you as as, hey, let's let's celebrate this, is it's not a thing that sorry, I get all weepy when I do all this stuff sometimes. But it it's it's not something that people are generally comfortable in dealing with, you know, and and you don't know what to say, you don't know what to do, you don't know where to go and not go, because there's no rule book for it. That's right. Everybody's different, unique, but I don't think people realize that aren't the ones directly affected by these losses. I don't think people realize that it's just a recurring, it's like a bad groundhog day. It just keeps coming back, keeps coming back, and like you know, even if you're ready for it, you're just never ready for it. And yet it seems like there's a kind of a simple relief for it. Just somebody come along and say, hey, let's celebrate a little something.
SPEAKER_01That's right. What I say is the silence is deafening, right? Yeah, it's it's it's the loudest thing, and and I tell you, people don't know what to say. And I I I used to be one of those people, right? I was very comfortable in the moments of death because of the work that I'd done as a nurse, but I I didn't know what to say. I didn't even know that I needed to say something at month two, right? Right. I I didn't even know that. And and and I've learned that, and you know, through this journey, I decided to become a grief counselor because I wanted to understand better how to support people, and so yeah, we we we've just decided to to build something that will show up for you because the other thing is life does go on for the living, right?
SPEAKER_00And so it's supposed to, right?
SPEAKER_01That's exactly right. So it's hard to remember what your sister's wedding anniversary was. You know, you're planning your own Christmas. It's hard to think about what to do for her for Christmas because her husband isn't there, and and so we've decided to build something where you don't even have to think, right? We show up, we show up with things that are heirloom quality, they're they're personalized to their person, and and you get all of the opportunity to provide the comfort for them that you wanted to anyway, without the labor of doing it. And so, you know, I I really do think this is this is my way of making his legacy alive. My sister says all the time, when he first died, you said, I'm going to find a purpose in this. There has to be a purpose in that.
SPEAKER_00Well, it sounds like you have done just that, and you know, that's the thing too. It's like if you're able to find purpose in a lost like that, you literally keep that spirit alive all the time.
SPEAKER_01That's right. All the time.
SPEAKER_00Every time you're helping somebody else, there's a connection to your son that that's alive and real, you know. It's uh that's that's powerful. I'm I'm I'm impressed. I like I said, when I first saw the you know the the inquiry for this, I kind of cocked my head to the side a little bit. I'm like, okay, I'm not sure what's going on, but it's it it, you know, seriously, was we deal with a lot of you know different topics, and and mental health and emotional health is, in my opinion, equally as important as physical health and contributes to physical health in a dramatic way. People get depressed and can't come out of it, and it can contribute to all kinds of problems. And this is one of those kind of things that sometimes people don't come out of, you know. They don't, you know, in fact, spouses that are together for a long time generally when one goes, the other one follows along pretty quickly afterward. And I can't help but think maybe
How Grief Impacts Body And Mind
SPEAKER_00that doesn't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_01There's actually science behind that. You're exactly right. The the rates of uh heart failure, heart attacks, heart disease in people who are grieving a higher, people with with unresolved grief die quicker, right? Um die quicker, sicker. Yeah, right than other people.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And you know, especially things like sleep and and you know your ability to eat right, or even your propensity to you know deal with things like addiction and and all of that, you know, people find every reason in the world to go and you know numb themselves or or you know not have to think about it. So wow. So what was the process that came from this Mother's Day experience with your loved ones to your your business that you have now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I was actually in a PhD program at the time. So I was studying healthcare innovation
Building Timely Presence Through Business School
SPEAKER_01and I dropped out. Oh dropped out. I was maybe a year and a half from completion, and I dropped out. Oh, and I enrolled in an executive MBA for entrepreneurial studies.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's a other side of the spectrum there.
SPEAKER_01And I built this business through the program. That's what I did.
SPEAKER_00Oh, no kidding.
SPEAKER_01All right, yeah, it was my case study through the program. And so I studied things. I am a nurse. I'm a nurse I'm an executive now. I'm a nurse executive, but I I brought I'm in healthcare. So I had to learn supply chain, right? Marketing, right? I mean, you know, finance, I mean, things about running a business I didn't know. But it was all built on the case study of timely presence. That's the name, timely presence, because that's the goal to be present at the right time, right? So I built it through there and I learned class by class, brick by brick, how to build this in a way that was sustainable and that would be impactful. And so my younger son, who is actually the one that called and told me that Darius had died.
SPEAKER_00Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01My husband and I were on a cruise ship at the time.
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01And so my son, who was 22, had the burden of calling me and saying, Mom, I don't know how to tell you this, right? Terrible task for a kid at that age.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01He's my he's my partner in this. Oh nice. Wow. We have learned how to, it's beautiful, how to secure the products. And and we really went, you know, we did a lot of research because I wanted to know what to buy,
Gifts Timed To Hard Days
SPEAKER_01right? I have the concept, I know that we want to send it on emotionally charged days, but what do you send? Yeah, and the reality is there's people dying around you all the time, right?
SPEAKER_00And so we get older, it happens a lot more quickly, and a lot more often, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I started asking people, you know, I bought people things, I asked people what their favorite memorial gift that they received was. I asked them what what is it that you miss about your loved one, right? And so wind chimes, wind chimes is super popular. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I like that. It's a constant, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's an interactive gift, right? I feel like my son is talking to me, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's right. That's um very powerful energetically.
SPEAKER_01Yes, so we send wind chimes on birth on the departed's birthday. That's the gift that you get, right? Uh personal, super personal. For a wedding anniversary, we send a widow beautiful bouquet of preserved red roses. So they get about 40 red roses that live five years.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01They're stunning, right? Because it's an anniversary. Women get them often. We send we send men self-care kits because our goal is for them to take care of themselves. And I know wives have a lot to do with that. When you're missing your wife, you need a reminder. We send a gift at Christmas, and I I really struggled with Christmas, right? That could be anywhere in the spectrum or or the holidays. I shouldn't just say Christmas, as we send it in the holiday season. So we thought about ornaments, we all kinds of things, but we landed on these beautiful engraved crystal candle holders, okay, because they reflect light, right? And they're stunning, and you look at them and you don't think death, right? You think light, you think life, right? And so people light a candle for all sorts of reasons.
SPEAKER_00And you know, the Jewish, they have the the whole menorah, that's all part of their whole ceremony. I mean, it's it's that's very appropriate, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's very applicable gift, it's engraved with their name and dates, they're gorgeous, yeah. And then on the, you know, we do different gifts for Mother's Day, Father's Day, but the last gift that comes for every package is on the anniversary of death. Okay, it's a tough day, it's a tough day, and then so it's a beautiful crystal photo keepsake. So we get a photo of their loved one, uh, it's 3D, it looks like they're looking at you. Wow. And the response from everyone is this mix of like love and joy and just just intense emotion when they open that gap. It's just it's it's all the things that you feel that day, and you're able to see their face. And so, you know, we've been very thoughtful and intentional in the gifts, and and you know, my one group that we support are are women who have miscarriages and stillbirths. I feel like it's a it's a silent grief that people don't see. And the first person who ever got a gift from us was a woman who had had a baby that lived 48 hours.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I was gonna ask you how what was the first experience? So you jumped out in and and so tell me about that experience. Like, how do you you're launching this brand new business? You hadn't done it before, you you really didn't know how people were gonna react other than whatever you know uh research you'd done. But I mean, the truth is until you do it, you don't know. Tell me about your first client, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so she this woman, her baby had lived 48 hours. Her boss actually had remembered that and heard about our business. Okay, and so she purchased this knowing that the upcoming anniversary of this loss was was was imminent. Okay, so she ordered it. We sent out their first gift is a crystal suncatcher. It's a suncatcher, uh-huh. And this woman messaged and said that it was the darkest day she'd ever had. This was the year anniversary, and she walked out to her mailbox and she opened it, and there was a package with a dove on it. She's gonna what the heck is this? Right, and she said, and I went in and I was standing by my kitchen window and I opened it, and it was a sign of catcher. And on the darkest day of my life, I had a prism dancing on my kitchen walls. Wow, changed the tenor of the day, right? Sure, and that is my favorite review, will always be my favorite review. Yeah, because she said nobody remembers a baby they never met.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah, I was gonna say be one of the ones that would be the most difficult because you didn't have a relationship that you could. Quantify. I mean, you know.
SPEAKER_01And and her words were no one remembers a baby you never you never met. And she's the one I can never forget. Right. So and it showed up at just the right moment. And so that's what we do for people. That's what we do. That's how my son's legacy is paying it for.
SPEAKER_00And how how do you find people? Like, I mean, it's you don't see billboard on the freeway. How and it, you know, I mean, I guess there's you know mortuaries and places that you know are dealing with with these folks, but I mean, how do you how do you how do you approach that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we are we've got a pretty you know aggressive social media presence. Um we're on Pinterest, which I didn't know this, but Pinterest is
How People Find And Use It
SPEAKER_01really like a marketplace. People get on there to look for gifts that they want.
SPEAKER_00And I thought it was the place people swap recipes and stuff.
SPEAKER_01They did they do that too.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01We are working with some life insurance companies, okay, funeral homes. All right, and you know, I am doing podcasts and writing articles and just getting our story out there because it matters, it matters. No one does what we do. Oh, and these find tangible gifts of care matter, they really do, they really do.
SPEAKER_00And so when when you get a client and they reach out to you, how do you, you know, do you have a a survey, an interview, or how do you, you know, what information are you looking for so that you know how to tailor this?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so for the individual consumer, you just go to our website, you pick the relationship that they had to the departed, okay, and everything is done for you. It's done. We need their name, their date of birth, their date of death. You have a year to upload a photo. Okay. And if they were married, we need you to decide if it's going to be the wedding anniversary or Valentine's Day. That's it. Okay. That's what we need. You do that, and we literally take care of the rest. Wow. We'll send you an email and tell you, hey, don't forget Joe's wife's birthday is to, you know, next week. We're sending the wind shine, but you don't have to do that.
SPEAKER_00You send them a reminder that you're going to be doing your thing so they don't okay. Wow. Wow. That's right.
SPEAKER_01So that's what we do for the consumer for businesses. You know, we we can curate things a little bit more, but it is super easy for the individual who just wants to do something for someone they care about.
SPEAKER_00Nice. And you're based on the east coast, whereabouts? Orlando, Florida. Oh, no kidding. All right, yeah, and and but you service everywhere, yeah.
SPEAKER_01The whole we do all of the United States. We do not, we're not international yet.
SPEAKER_00Okay, all right. And so when did the business officially launch?
SPEAKER_01So we we kind of soft launched to friends and and family last year, but but we are like full service live. It's just been a couple of months. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00So you're just hitting the ground running.
SPEAKER_01Hitting it, let me tell you, we are hitting it running.
SPEAKER_00Nice. And so when when somebody signs up for this, it's not, I mean, it's a it's a it's a it's a product. So it's it's a it runs its course, it it goes for one year and then then it's finished.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a one, it's a one-time purchase for a collection that lasts a year.
SPEAKER_00Got it, got it. And so in the amount of time that you've been out, how many uh customers have you serviced?
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness. I I should be able to just give you that number off the top of my head.
SPEAKER_00I I'm uh I'm I I'm a business owner myself. So I people ask me questions like, I don't know, go look at the book. My son could tell you.
SPEAKER_01My job is to is to bring them in. It's his job to process.
SPEAKER_00Well, you're doing your job well, and so this has just been amazing. I I you you've taken, you know, I've always one of these guys who I've been an entrepreneur all my life, and I'm a I'm a lemonade guy, you know. You give me something bad and I I'll turn it into something useful, I guarantee you. And you've certainly exemplified that. And and so, Kelly, why don't you think, you know, there's there's so much that we've gone into, but our guests, you know, usually I try to have our guests leave our listeners with us with a thought. What what do you think that would look like?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think my thought for your your guests is really if we keep living, we will lose. That's just we you will experience loss if you keep living, right?
What To Do After The Funeral
SPEAKER_01The only way to escape that is death.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And so when the people around you, your colleagues, your friends, your family, people around you lose some money that they love. Stay close. You know, be be the one who's present, just show up, just talk about it. Don't ask them what they need, just do, just do. They're not in a state to answer that. Just just bring dinner, just watch the kids, just do for them and and be the one that makes a difference. They will never forget it, and you will never forget filling that space for somebody you care about.
SPEAKER_00Wow, that's beautiful, and and definitely I couldn't agree more. So, why don't you uh share with us your your uh valuable information? How does somebody find you and and and reach out?
SPEAKER_01Yes, um on LinkedIn, I'm
Connect With Kelly And Closing
SPEAKER_01available just as Kelly Edmondson. There's a D in the middle of that, Edmondson. We are the timelypresence.com. On Facebook, we are the Timely Presence on Instagram. We are Timely Presence, and you find me on Instagram at v dotkelly edmondson, E-D-M-O-N-D-S-O-N.
SPEAKER_00Well, beautiful, Kelly. This has been amazing. I I didn't know how this was all gonna play out, but um it it's remarkable. And you know, I I often invite my guests to come back and share additional stories. I suspect as you get further along into this, you're gonna learn a lot and and have more to talk about. So I certainly would welcome you to come back at one point and and share your progress. But just grateful that you're able to come out here and tell your story.
SPEAKER_01Yes, thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.
SPEAKER_00Well, this has been another episode of the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine. I want to thank all of our listeners for making the show possible, and we will see you next time.
