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On a beautiful June day in 1989, Barbara LesStrang took the first AfterLoss HelpLetter to the printer. The AfterLoss concept came about as a result of the death of her beloved mother, and for whom the AfterLoss program has been dedicated, as noted on the last page of the twelve original AfterLoss issues.
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It was Mrs. LesStrang’s dream to provide other survivors of loss with the same benefits of her bereavement class experience at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, CA. To achieve this goal she asked Dr. Margie Kennedy-Reeves, the facilitator of those classes, if she would serve as editor for the grief recovery series, an effort she agreed to undertake, with LesStrang functioning as AfterLoss publisher.
The first AfterLoss printing consisted of 2,000 copies of Issue One although at the time only three subscriptions had been sold! Each successive month another 2,000 copies of the next issue were published. Looking back on those early days, Mrs. LesStrang confides, “As I watched all of those boxes of HelpLetters pile up in our storage area, I often asked, “Lord, is this a step of faith or an act of insanity?” Finally sales began to grow.
The eight-page HelpLetters were created in a comfortable, easy-to-read-and-understand format. Every issue began with a major article followed by several other pieces, each dealing with a specific aspect of the grief process. The issues were sequential in content with articles corresponding with the difficult emotions many survivors were facing at that particular time in their journey through loss. Each article provided readers with a gentle guide through the grieving process, validating and explaining the very normal needs, feelings and fears of bereaved people.
A popular feature in each issue was “Loss and Recovery” which illustrated the successful journey through grief by the bylined writer. Each of these recovery portraits were authored by men and women who had successfully traveled through their grief process, some were originally written in longer formats as a chapter in Mrs. LesStrang’s best selling book, “AfterLoss, A Recovery Companion for Those Who Are Grieving.”
The AfterLoss book was published originally in hardcover by Thomas Nelson Publishers in 1992, and has subsequently been reprinted in four soft cover editions by Harbor House Publishers. As part of its ongoing grief recovery program, AfterLoss has also made the AfterLoss book available to funeral homes for distribution to their grieving families, clergy and other
caregivers.
The last page of each AfterLoss HelpLetter was called “Answers.” This feature dealt with Dr. Kennedy-Reeves answering questions raised by readers or questions most frequently asked during her bereavement classes.
That first issue included these subjects:
Distribution of the HelpLetters was established primarily through funeral homes which learned of the new Aftercare program through company advertising in leading US trade magazines and news coverage.
The AfterLoss program originated under the umbrella of Harbor House (West) Publishers, Inc., a west-coast affiliate of the company owned by The LesStrangs in Michigan, and for which Mrs. LesStrang served as President and her husband, Jacques, as CEO and Chairman.
About the time that Harbor House (West) expanded from the California desert to its new facility in Santa Barbara, CA, AfterLoss also began to experience dramatic growth. Three Special-focus issues of AfterLoss were published: Widowed, The Lament of Child Loss, and Facing The Holidays After Your Loss in response to the number of inquiries on those specific subjects which came into the AfterLoss offices. Rather than being premeditated publications, they were created to fill specific, identified needs as they arose and were identified.
Later the fourth in the Special Focus series, Coping With Suicide, was written and produced, thereby providing much needed and meaningful assistance for survivors who have suffered the loss of a loved ones by suicide.
As it continued to establish its own identity, the expanding AfterLoss program was spun off from its parent, Harbor House (West) Inc., into a separate corporation, “The AfterLoss Group.” Its range of services and materials continued to grow dramatically as the company expanded from the original twelve monthly HelpLetters -- into a broader range of additional publications to serve not only the bereaved, but funeral directors as well.
The special publications for the bereaved included the following: Four Question and Answer booklets titled “Grief is a Process, Not an Event,” with two of the publications addressing questions most frequently asked by the widowed and two specially created to answer questions asked by other family members or loved ones. Each booklet contained answers to as many as 30 questions, primarily those most often asked by bereaved survivors.
A matched series of four publications dealing with specific major aspects of grief were also written and produced including The Effects of Grieving on Your Health, Loneliness Lives Here, Getting Past the Anger and Guilt, the Common Thread. These publications were provided to funeral homes with a four-tiered Lucite display rack for families to pick up in lobbies or arrangement rooms.
“I Never Know What to Say,” another important subject and popular publication, answered that particular question, and in eight pages discusses both what to say and do and what not to say to friends or relatives who have suffered the death of a friend or loved one.
Another pamphlet and message produced as a beautiful frameable wall hanging, “After My Loss” originally published as the Epilogue of Mrs. LesStrang’s book, AfterLoss, was produced to provide insight and understanding into the fears, feelings and needs of the newly bereaved. After My Loss is often referred to as “The voice of the bereaved” as it explains how survivors feel, how they need and want to be treated as they struggle to recover from their loss.
“The AfterLoss Credo,” an edited version of the Epilogue was also published but in a bookmark format. Straightforward and direct, yet written in sympathetic and understanding language, The AfterLoss Credo has become the highest volume publication of AfterLoss. To date, over one million Credos have been distributed.
Later, other separate programs dealt with custom tailored needs and activities for funeral homes such as holiday programs, programs for the clergy and caregivers, and a special Empty Chair pre-need sales program. These were created in tandem with an advertising and marketing program for funeral homes using the AfterLoss materials.
The advertising and marketing programs combined broadcast and print media in the familiar question-and-answer formats, as the bereaved were invited to both read in newspapers and hear on their radios the answers to the most frequently asked questions concerning loss. A subject few will acknowledge or address. These newspaper advertisements came in two sizes, with the AfterLoss funeral home identified as the community resource for information about loss and grief recovery. Television commercials have since been added to the marketing effort.
A holiday program was then created which consisted of a holiday video featuring Dr. Kennedy-Reeves in an actual bereavement class setting, a “Facing the Holidays” HelpLetter, holiday cards for the funeral homes to send to their families, and A Christmas Credo written by Mrs. LesStrang, and a special holiday speakers program.
A pre-need program called “The Empty Chair” provided funeral homes the tools they need to presell their funeral services to customers. The program includes a 24-page booklet called “The Empty Chair,” question and answer newspaper and radio advertisements, and a news release covering the program for local consumption, among other elements. That program is often sensitively used by funeral homes in their marketing and follow-up activities.
The Empty Chair program evolved as a result of the chapter “One Day There’ll Be an Empty Chair” from LesStrang’s AfterLoss book, where the advantages of Prearrangements were simply outlined and encouraged for her readers with no hint of commercial overtones or benefit. Many funeral directors have since reported a significant increase in preneed sales, one as much as 300%, in their prearrangements after the implementation of The Empty Chair Program.
Praise for AfterLoss ranges from accolades from funeral homes to grateful, heartfelt messages written by the bereaved. Many are received directly by the funeral homes as pre-addressed acknowledgment cards from AfterLoss readers.
Funeral directors refer to the program as the most beneficial effort with which they have come in contact. The bereaved often say things such as, “AfterLoss saved my sanity.” “AfterLoss gave me hope that one day my pain would end.” “Thank you for AfterLoss.”
Funeral homes have acknowledged increases in business as a result of their use of the program. Bereaved families are finding the help they need to carry forth with what Mrs. LesStrang long ago called “their new, but different lives.” The depth, excellence and finely tuned balance of the program rests with its two highly respected authors, editor Dr. Kennedy-Reeves and publisher, Barbara LesStrang. Dr. Kennedy-Reeves made clear her objective in the first HelpLetter. “I will endeavor to arm you (the reader) with skills that will see you through the worst times and prepare you to accept the best. We want to help make your grief recovery process a growth process.”
In the fall of 1994 AfterLoss expanded into new offices in Bermuda Dunes, CA. In 1996 AfterLoss was acquired by QDC World Inc., a multi-national investment firm. In addition to their direct sales model, AfterLoss has a large e-commerce subscription based business. Grieving members of the public who are not receiving the AfterLoss HelpLetter from their funeral home, frequent the company’s website at www.afterloss.com to self subscribe to the Program. The Internet has allowed so many bereaved to seek help without having to surrender their privacy and receive the finest grief recovery assistance in the world, in the intimacy of their own home.
After becoming part of the QDC World group of companies, AfterLoss has seen their sales grow exponentially with customers in Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The AfterLoss HelpLetters have also been translated into French and Spanish. Two books by Kathy Dawson, Bye Bye I Love You, an activity book for children, and The Losin’ Blues, a book for preadolescents have also been published by AfterLoss.
The company is committed to executing its business philosophy of providing on going Grief Recovery Assistance to those in need.
The first AfterLoss printing consisted of 2,000 copies of Issue One although at the time only three subscriptions had been sold! Each successive month another 2,000 copies of the next issue were published. Looking back on those early days, Mrs. LesStrang confides, “As I watched all of those boxes of HelpLetters pile up in our storage area, I often asked, “Lord, is this a step of faith or an act of insanity?” Finally sales began to grow.
The eight-page HelpLetters were created in a comfortable, easy-to-read-and-understand format. Every issue began with a major article followed by several other pieces, each dealing with a specific aspect of the grief process. The issues were sequential in content with articles corresponding with the difficult emotions many survivors were facing at that particular time in their journey through loss. Each article provided readers with a gentle guide through the grieving process, validating and explaining the very normal needs, feelings and fears of bereaved people.
A popular feature in each issue was “Loss and Recovery” which illustrated the successful journey through grief by the bylined writer. Each of these recovery portraits were authored by men and women who had successfully traveled through their grief process, some were originally written in longer formats as a chapter in Mrs. LesStrang’s best selling book, “AfterLoss, A Recovery Companion for Those Who Are Grieving.”
The AfterLoss book was published originally in hardcover by Thomas Nelson Publishers in 1992, and has subsequently been reprinted in four soft cover editions by Harbor House Publishers. As part of its ongoing grief recovery program, AfterLoss has also made the AfterLoss book available to funeral homes for distribution to their grieving families, clergy and other
caregivers.
The last page of each AfterLoss HelpLetter was called “Answers.” This feature dealt with Dr. Kennedy-Reeves answering questions raised by readers or questions most frequently asked during her bereavement classes.
That first issue included these subjects:
- The Mission of AfterLoss
- Those First Sixty Days
- Introduction to the 12-part Series: Grief Work
- Your Own Special Grief : What Makes It So
- About This Issue
- About Dr. Margie-Kennedy Reeves
- The AfterLoss Credo
- Answers
Distribution of the HelpLetters was established primarily through funeral homes which learned of the new Aftercare program through company advertising in leading US trade magazines and news coverage.
The AfterLoss program originated under the umbrella of Harbor House (West) Publishers, Inc., a west-coast affiliate of the company owned by The LesStrangs in Michigan, and for which Mrs. LesStrang served as President and her husband, Jacques, as CEO and Chairman.
About the time that Harbor House (West) expanded from the California desert to its new facility in Santa Barbara, CA, AfterLoss also began to experience dramatic growth. Three Special-focus issues of AfterLoss were published: Widowed, The Lament of Child Loss, and Facing The Holidays After Your Loss in response to the number of inquiries on those specific subjects which came into the AfterLoss offices. Rather than being premeditated publications, they were created to fill specific, identified needs as they arose and were identified.
Later the fourth in the Special Focus series, Coping With Suicide, was written and produced, thereby providing much needed and meaningful assistance for survivors who have suffered the loss of a loved ones by suicide.
As it continued to establish its own identity, the expanding AfterLoss program was spun off from its parent, Harbor House (West) Inc., into a separate corporation, “The AfterLoss Group.” Its range of services and materials continued to grow dramatically as the company expanded from the original twelve monthly HelpLetters -- into a broader range of additional publications to serve not only the bereaved, but funeral directors as well.
The special publications for the bereaved included the following: Four Question and Answer booklets titled “Grief is a Process, Not an Event,” with two of the publications addressing questions most frequently asked by the widowed and two specially created to answer questions asked by other family members or loved ones. Each booklet contained answers to as many as 30 questions, primarily those most often asked by bereaved survivors.
A matched series of four publications dealing with specific major aspects of grief were also written and produced including The Effects of Grieving on Your Health, Loneliness Lives Here, Getting Past the Anger and Guilt, the Common Thread. These publications were provided to funeral homes with a four-tiered Lucite display rack for families to pick up in lobbies or arrangement rooms.
“I Never Know What to Say,” another important subject and popular publication, answered that particular question, and in eight pages discusses both what to say and do and what not to say to friends or relatives who have suffered the death of a friend or loved one.
Another pamphlet and message produced as a beautiful frameable wall hanging, “After My Loss” originally published as the Epilogue of Mrs. LesStrang’s book, AfterLoss, was produced to provide insight and understanding into the fears, feelings and needs of the newly bereaved. After My Loss is often referred to as “The voice of the bereaved” as it explains how survivors feel, how they need and want to be treated as they struggle to recover from their loss.
“The AfterLoss Credo,” an edited version of the Epilogue was also published but in a bookmark format. Straightforward and direct, yet written in sympathetic and understanding language, The AfterLoss Credo has become the highest volume publication of AfterLoss. To date, over one million Credos have been distributed.
Later, other separate programs dealt with custom tailored needs and activities for funeral homes such as holiday programs, programs for the clergy and caregivers, and a special Empty Chair pre-need sales program. These were created in tandem with an advertising and marketing program for funeral homes using the AfterLoss materials.
The advertising and marketing programs combined broadcast and print media in the familiar question-and-answer formats, as the bereaved were invited to both read in newspapers and hear on their radios the answers to the most frequently asked questions concerning loss. A subject few will acknowledge or address. These newspaper advertisements came in two sizes, with the AfterLoss funeral home identified as the community resource for information about loss and grief recovery. Television commercials have since been added to the marketing effort.
A holiday program was then created which consisted of a holiday video featuring Dr. Kennedy-Reeves in an actual bereavement class setting, a “Facing the Holidays” HelpLetter, holiday cards for the funeral homes to send to their families, and A Christmas Credo written by Mrs. LesStrang, and a special holiday speakers program.
A pre-need program called “The Empty Chair” provided funeral homes the tools they need to presell their funeral services to customers. The program includes a 24-page booklet called “The Empty Chair,” question and answer newspaper and radio advertisements, and a news release covering the program for local consumption, among other elements. That program is often sensitively used by funeral homes in their marketing and follow-up activities.
The Empty Chair program evolved as a result of the chapter “One Day There’ll Be an Empty Chair” from LesStrang’s AfterLoss book, where the advantages of Prearrangements were simply outlined and encouraged for her readers with no hint of commercial overtones or benefit. Many funeral directors have since reported a significant increase in preneed sales, one as much as 300%, in their prearrangements after the implementation of The Empty Chair Program.
Praise for AfterLoss ranges from accolades from funeral homes to grateful, heartfelt messages written by the bereaved. Many are received directly by the funeral homes as pre-addressed acknowledgment cards from AfterLoss readers.
Funeral directors refer to the program as the most beneficial effort with which they have come in contact. The bereaved often say things such as, “AfterLoss saved my sanity.” “AfterLoss gave me hope that one day my pain would end.” “Thank you for AfterLoss.”
Funeral homes have acknowledged increases in business as a result of their use of the program. Bereaved families are finding the help they need to carry forth with what Mrs. LesStrang long ago called “their new, but different lives.” The depth, excellence and finely tuned balance of the program rests with its two highly respected authors, editor Dr. Kennedy-Reeves and publisher, Barbara LesStrang. Dr. Kennedy-Reeves made clear her objective in the first HelpLetter. “I will endeavor to arm you (the reader) with skills that will see you through the worst times and prepare you to accept the best. We want to help make your grief recovery process a growth process.”
In the fall of 1994 AfterLoss expanded into new offices in Bermuda Dunes, CA. In 1996 AfterLoss was acquired by QDC World Inc., a multi-national investment firm. In addition to their direct sales model, AfterLoss has a large e-commerce subscription based business. Grieving members of the public who are not receiving the AfterLoss HelpLetter from their funeral home, frequent the company’s website at www.afterloss.com to self subscribe to the Program. The Internet has allowed so many bereaved to seek help without having to surrender their privacy and receive the finest grief recovery assistance in the world, in the intimacy of their own home.
After becoming part of the QDC World group of companies, AfterLoss has seen their sales grow exponentially with customers in Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The AfterLoss HelpLetters have also been translated into French and Spanish. Two books by Kathy Dawson, Bye Bye I Love You, an activity book for children, and The Losin’ Blues, a book for preadolescents have also been published by AfterLoss.
The company is committed to executing its business philosophy of providing on going Grief Recovery Assistance to those in need.
HelpLetters and Products
The AfterLoss subscription program covers a wide array of subjects and provides specific levels of assistance, guidance and comfort for surviving loved ones. We also carry a number of supporting publications to complement the program.
