Because There Was Love
A Six-Week Christ-Centered Grief Support Journey
Grief is not just sadness.
It is the empty chair. The song you cannot hear without crying. The birthday that still comes. The phone call you cannot make.
It is the ordinary moment that suddenly reminds you life is not the same.
At Storybrook, we do not believe grief is something to “get over.” We believe grief deserves to be carried with care, faith, honesty, memory, and love.
Because There Was Love is a six-week Christ-centered grief support journey for those learning how to live after the death of someone they love without feeling pressured to leave that person—or the love they shared—behind.
This space is for the person who misses someone deeply.
The person who loves God but still aches.
The person who is tired of being strong.
The person who wonders who they are now that someone important is gone.
The person who needs permission to remember, cry, laugh, question, and keep loving.
Grief changes life.
And sometimes the ache is so great simply because there was love.
Who This Journey Is For
The Love That Remains may be for you if you are grieving:
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The death of a parent, spouse, child, sibling, friend, or loved one
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A loss that others do not fully understand
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A complicated relationship with someone who has died
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A recent loss that still feels impossible to process
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A long-ago loss that still rises in certain seasons
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A caregiving season that ended in death
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The loss of how life used to be
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The part of yourself that changed after saying goodbye
You may come with fresh grief or the kind that has been carried for years.
You may come with faith, anger, numbness, gratitude, regret, longing, confusion, or all of it tangled together.
There is room for the truth here.
What We Will Explore
Over six weeks, we will make room for the whole experience of grief—not only the death itself.
We may talk about the person you loved, what they meant to you, what you miss, what you remember, and the ways their life became part of yours.
We may explore what changed after they died: the routines, roles, relationships, hard dates, family dynamics, unexpected triggers, unanswered questions, and ordinary moments that suddenly feel different.
There is also room for the complicated places—regret, guilt, anger, relief, unfinished conversations, strained relationships, or grief for a person whose life and relationship with you were not simple.
And because this is Christ-centered grief support, there is room for faith as it actually feels in grief - prayer, lament, hope, questions, silence, trust. Yes, even the days when you know what you believe but still wish this chapter had been written differently.
Their Story Matters Too
At Storybrook, the person you love does not disappear beneath the story of how they died.
You are welcome to speak their name here.
You are welcome to tell their stories.
And you do not have to apologize because you are still talking about someone everyone else seems to have stopped mentioning.
Sometimes grief needs more than a place to talk about death.
Sometimes it needs a place to remember a life.
The Little House That Loved the Rain
The heart behind Because There Was Love is closely connected to Michelle’s book, The Little House That Loved the Rain: A Story and Guide for Loving Someone Through Dying, Death, and Grief.
Part story and part practical companion, the book walks through the places grief often begins long before goodbye—from hospice rooms, difficult decisions, and anticipatory grief to funeral-home conversations, spiritual questions, the moments when heaven seems to draw near, and the life that must somehow continue afterward.
It was written for those who love, stay, wonder, remember—and sometimes simply need someone to help them understand what is happening along the way.
Your Story of Love and Loss
Throughout our six weeks together, I will be listening for more than the story of what happened.
I will be listening for your person.
The memories you return to. The words they used. The little things other people might never think to ask about. The moments that still make you laugh. The places that still ache. What your relationship meant to you, what changed when they died, and what love looks like now that you are learning to carry it differently.
From those pieces, something uniquely Storybrook begins to take shape.
At the end of your journey, you will receive a personalized Storybrook story written especially for you—a carefully created story of love, loss, memory, and the relationship that mattered enough to leave an imprint on your life.
It is not a counseling summary or a record of everything you shared.
It is your story. Their story. And the story of a love that death did not make meaningless.
For those who would like something they can hold onto for years to come, your Storybrook story can also be professionally created as a personalized keepsake book.
A Note from Michelle
Because There Was Love is personal to me.
When I lost my mom, grief took me to a much darker place than I expected. For a while, I did not know how to carry what had happened or how to find my way back into a life that kept moving without her.
And even with faith—even knowing what I believed about God and heaven—I still hurt. I still missed her. I still had days when knowing she was with Jesus did not change the fact that I wanted my mom here.
That experience changed the way I understand grief. It taught me that you can trust God and still struggle. You can believe in heaven and still hate the goodbye. You can have good days and then suddenly find yourself undone by something small. And none of that means you are grieving incorrectly.
That is part of why I created Because There Was Love.
I wanted to create the kind of place where you do not have to prove that you are healing, stop saying their name, turn every painful moment into something positive, or explain why certain things still hurt.
You can miss them and trust God.
You can be grateful for what you had and still grieve what you lost.
You can keep living without pretending that what happened did not change you.
And you can remember someone you love without believing that remembering means you are stuck.
My hope is that during our time together, you feel free to bring whatever grief looks like for you—the parts that make sense and the parts that do not.
You do not have to rush through it here. You do not have to make it easier for anyone else to understand. We can simply begin with where you are.
- Michelle
Begin Because There Was Love
If you are grieving and need a place to begin, you are welcome here.
You do not need to know what to say.
You do not need to be past the hardest part.
You do not need to be strong enough to talk without crying.
Come with the love.
Come with the hurt.
Come with the memories and the questions.
And please—
Come with the name of the one you miss.