<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>329969</docID> <postdate>2024-09-29 08:19:40</postdate> <headline>‘We can survive’: how Michelle’s grief helps others</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-329970" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/r0_0_800_600_w800_h600_fmax-1-e1727561772218.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" /></p> <caption>Michelle Moriarty went into a state of shock when she lost her partner, leaving her widowed at 38.</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Stephanie Gardiner</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Michelle Moriarty was instantly besotted with Nathan Johnston, who was tall, wore Doc Martens and drove the loudest V8 in town.</strong></p> <p>"Our friendship grew into something more, there was always chemistry between us," Ms Moriarty said of her teenage sweetheart.</p> <p>"We grew into young adults together."</p> <p>Amid the fits and starts of youthful romance the pair split in their early 20s, but reunited about a decade later in their home town of Bunbury, south of Perth.</p> <p>"We had this conversation that we really loved each other and wanted to be with each other and wanted to start a family," Ms Moriarty recalled.</p> <p>"We were together from that point on."</p> <p>Life was busy as the couple welcomed their son Cody in 2016, Ms Moriarty built her career as a social worker and Mr Johnston worked as a fly-in,-fly-out miner.</p> <p>One night in June 2018, the future they imagined ended when Mr Johnston died suddenly, leaving Ms Moriarty widowed at 38.</p> <p>She went into a profound state of shock for months, navigating life without her partner and unsure of what each day would bring.</p> <p>"Words can't describe how in-depth my grief was," Ms Moriarty said.</p> <p>"It's not just that you're missing your person, every single aspect of your life is different."</p> <p>Though her family and friends rallied around her, it wasn't until she met another widow that Ms Moriarty saw a glimmer of the future.</p> <p>That bond moved her to establish the Grief Connect online support page for young widows.</p> <p>The group - which has more than 500 members - grew beyond Ms Moriarty's expectations, along with a page for over-55s set up after the death of her father Neville in 2022.</p> <p>Members are far from alone: there were more than a million widowed people across Australia in 2021, 80 per cent of whom were female.</p> <p>"There are heaps of us and we can survive this and we can delight in life again and live with hope again," Ms Moriarty said.</p> <p>Her work to establish the groups earned Ms Moriarty the 2023 WA AgriFutures Rural Women's Award, which helped her expand Grief Connect into counselling, workplace education and keynote speaking.</p> <p>Her latest venture is the launch of conversation cards, which aim to help people talk to others dealing with grief or difficult emotions.</p> <p>"These cards need to go on every mining mess table, every staff table," Ms Moriarty said.</p> <p>"It's for when you think 'gosh, I don't know what to say'."</p> <p>A go-to question for checking in on people in turmoil is not "how are you?", but "how are you travelling?"</p> <p>It's something Ms Moriarty's fiance Ross Craigie asks her regularly.</p> <p>"It's like we're on a journey together," Ms Moriarty said of her favoured expression.</p> <p>"Grief is such a fluid thing, I'm on a grief journey but I'm also on a life journey."</p> <p><em>* Applications for the 2025 AgriFutures Rural Women's Award close on October 9.</em></p> </body>