Dear Dougy

When your parent is one of six people in medical history to be diagnosed with and die from a rare disease, the phrase, "The odds are one in a million" takes on a very different meaning. This was true for Rebecca Hobbs-Lawrence, Pathways Program Coordinator at Dougy Center, who was 11 when her father died of heart cancer. At that point, she decided that if something tragic could happen, it would most likely happen to her. This worldview informed so much of how she approached school, dating, family, and becoming a parent.  In this conversation we explore: The early days of being a parent without her father. How vigilance and anxiety led Rebecca to over-function as a parent. The joy she found in watching her children get to be kids, without the responsibility she had to take on after her father died. How witnessing her grandson survive an extremely rare brain disease has helped rewrite her "one in a million" narrative. Other Grief Out Loud episodes with Rebecca: Ep. 18: Grieving the Death of a Sibling - Tips