The MISS Foundation

Few things humble me more than my association with Joanne Cacciatore and the MISS Foundation. It is a privilege to call her a friend and an honor to serve on her board.

In July 1992 my son Eric died. In July 1994 Joanne’s daughter died. Roughly twenty years later, we would meet serendipitously in a line waiting for our coffees at Starbucks. I wrote about encountering this woman who I knew nothing about. Not her name, where she lived, or anything about her. But we did share that we’d lost a child and both knew instantly what happens when a person we love deeply dies and nothing again is ever the same.

Joanne transformed her grief into extraordinary love, empathy and caring. She first created the MISS Foundation to help others who’ve experienced extraordinary loss to process and learn how to deal with their grief. She spread her arms to help tortured and abused animals and found amazing capabilities in these animals to help those who were grieving.

Today, people come from around the world to visit Selah Carefarm, near Sedona, AZ, where they experience compassion and a place to help them grieve. This safe place didn’t happen by accident. It took a massive amount of work from hundreds of unpaid volunteers, nearly all having the shared experience of losing a child.

Please visit the links below to learn more of this amazing group of people.