NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A local blogger is hosting grief share meet-ups over her favorite food: queso.
At places like Tio Fun! on Buchanan Street, Delia Ramsey snaps photos and blogs about food. But behind the posts on Instagram, she’s been struggling.
"In the last few years, I lost my mom, went through a divorce, had a head injury, and then this year, I lost my stepdad. I lost my full family unit that I grew up with," Ramsey said.
Delia explains her grief group in the video above.
That's when she got the idea to host Queso with Delia Jo. It's a time to gather and grieve.
“At the last one, six of us were there for three hours just sharing our stories, and everybody has such powerful hard stories, but yet we all connected on that, nothing else about us was the same, but we connected on the shared loss,” Ramsey said.
She hopes to normalize that it's OK to not be OK.
“That’s a big thing for me, how much social media is a highlight reel, and for me, people know it’s not. I get unfollowed every time I talk about grief by a few people, and so I tell myself, they haven’t experienced it yet,” Ramsey said.
Through the meetings, strangers have become friends. For Julia Turner, she said it provides a place of community and understanding.
“It is priceless because everybody understands the loss of a loved one, and they just can’t relate, so when you meet people that share that in common with you, it’s kind of like you feel like you can take a breath,” Turner said.
Delia is now launching a nonprofit. She wants to deliver comfort food to those who are grieving one day.
“I really just want to reinstall like authenticity and truth, and that life is hard but life can still be good,” Ramsey said.
Her next grief meet-up will be scheduled in the New Year, she will post about it on her Instagram — Dining with Delia Jo.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
