Somer Mercado

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.”