Milwaukee Author, Gael Garbarino Cullen, will be reading from her book: Owning Grief and answering audience questions.

A business trip never finished. Frantic calls to a far-away hotel, only to discover a 40-year old, otherwise healthy husband was found dead, apparently in his sleep. Faced with unspeakable grief over the loss of her husband and partner, Gael Garbarino Cullen had to cope with despair, anxiety, fear and depression as she navigated an uncertain future for herself and her four young daughters. With the oldest only nine and the youngest barely three, every momentous decision in their lives now rested squarely on her shoulders alone. Then there were the financial worries of a family reduced to a single income and the sad, awkward and sometimes funny experiences of a 40-something mom becoming suddenly single.

In Owning Grief, Gael Garbarino Cullen describes her refusal to let death destroy the very fabric of her young family’s life and legacy. Her intensely personal and moving memoir tells of the irony of finding gifts amid horrific loss and discovering post-traumatic growth, gifts that would later prove invaluable as she battled cancer, recovered from a crippling bicycle accident, and dealt with all the twists and turns that life inevitably throws our way.

Gael Garbarino Cullen is a writer and video producer as well as a longtime Milwaukee TV and radio news reporter who covered everything from presidential politics to World Series baseball during her career. She loves rock and roll music and is an avid Detroit Tiger baseball fan, a nod to her hometown roots.

She’s passionate about running, not too far or too fast, although she did manage to muscle through two marathons. She lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she is lucky enough to share time with her four daughters and their families, including a growing cache of grandchildren.