.png)
Somer Mercado
California
Somer Mercado, a disciple since 2007 in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, is an elementary school teacher, mother to two boys ages 12 and 15, widow to Ryuta Sanui since 2018, and remarried and happily married wife to Dario Mercado since 2021. She has been navigating grief, navigating how to parent grief, and navigating how to integrate grief, hope, love, and faith into life as it just keeps on going! She has a background in competitive sports, living abroad in Japan and Hawaii. She is a writer and grief advocate, but mostly, a teacher, a mom, a wife, and a disciple of Christ! Since becoming a widow and single mom in 2018, Somer has had a passion within the church for widows, fellow grievers, and single parents. She was part of a special team of single parents in the church who in 2020 started to gather single moms and dads for in-person and virtual events to discuss the specific faith needs within the single parent community. Although remarried, Somer has a personal ministry for widows, advocating for the “gleaners”, the other grievers out there, and those who operate on the “margins.”
When Your Heart Breaks: The Emotional Landscape of Tragic Loss to Hope
What do you do when your best friend, your spouse, the father to your children suddenly dies? Your whole world turns upside down and life can feel impossible to navigate. The other person who helped make your life operate and make sense is gone. Your children are missing their dad and now need a lot of extra support from you. No one around you understands. It looks like a gruesome, lonely journey ahead.
Judy McCreary and Somer Mercado, both widows with grieving children lost their husbands suddenly in 2018. They will share their story of loss but will also share about what helped them the most to get through the most heartbreaking time of their lives. God and hope!! This is a class for widows, grievers, people who want to help their grieving friends or for people who just want to learn more about grief.