My name is Jillie Duval, and I am the Office Administrator at Sunteck in Jacksonville. You will usually find me at the front desk or pushing around my cart (that I love so much!). After some events occurred in my personal life back in June of this year, I approached Kristen, our Marketing Manager, about writing a special kind of blog post for Sunteck and so, here we are.
I wanted to write a post about my Dad, Sunteck and grief. I felt like I would never get this blog post written, every time I wanted to start, I never could. But here I am, snacking on a buffalo chicken wrap, half-listening to Dave Dallas and his antics, and writing this post – for some reason July 23rd at 2:00pm felt right.
On Friday, June 26th, it had become apparent my Dad’s time was near. I needed to leave, and quickly. Everyone at Sunteck was so supportive, and encouraged me to go. It was such a relief to hear directly from the executives, especially Ken our CEO, that I had their full support. My Dad passed away peacefully at Cornerstone Hospice at 1:15am on June 29th 2015.
I’m sharing such a personal story with you because I want you to know what a positive experience I have had at Sunteck. Everyone in the office has been so supportive. They check on me, have written me cards, and even sent a small donation to hospice in memory of my Dad. They do not expect me to stoically go on working as if this traumatic life event never occurred. If I need to cry, or vent, it’s okay. Throughout this past month, I’ve learned it’s okay to grieve but still remain a professional, hard-worker. I know this isn’t exactly ground breaking information, but I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to remain stoic, that we cause more harm than good to our health, well-being, and work ethic.
I wanted to write this post to let you know that you are not alone, it is okay to grieve, and it is okay cry. This does not make you unprofessional, or bad worker. Sunteck wants you to be happy, and healthy. I specifically wanted to reach out to drivers, because I cannot imagine being on the road for hours on end, suffering with grief, all alone.
I researched grief and I found a few resources that might be of use whether you are constantly driving, or in an office like me. Please feel free to take a look at them, and share them with others.
• http://www.opentohope.com/
o Open to Hope is an online community offering inspiration stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.
• http://www.adec.org/adec/ADEC_Main/Find-Help/CopingWithLossNew/Coping_With_Loss.aspx
o Association for Death Education and Counseling has a lot of resources such as documents, links to organizations, and finding a specialist in your area
• Check with the local or your local Hospice organization they often time have grief support groups throughout the week that you can attend – schedule permitting
• https://www.caring.com/grief
o A plethora of information about grief, care giving, and dying along with links to support groups and other resources