- November 29, 2024
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Penny Bragg believes artistic expression is the only way to find true healing.
Though her little brother suffered from depression and anxiety in high school, Penny Bragg thought they had already won that battle. The family of eight pulled together, read books, met with therapists and found a combination of medication that worked for the baby of the family, Jayson Bronzini. Ten years later, those once dormant feelings erupted, and Bronzini was convinced he was beyond help. But still, the tight-knit family worked endlessly to find a end to his suffering. After all, they had did it once before. Why couldn’t they do it again?
But after three years of courageously battling to stay above his mental illness, the pain for Jayson Bronzini became too much to bear. At the age of 35, this talented musician and beloved brother, took his own life.
“I think he stayed alive more for us than for himself that last year,” Bragg said. “We’re a large family, and it hit every once of us differently. We didn’t know what to do. Our worst fears had come true.”
Bragg began getting involved in organizations like American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Halifax Health Hospice Traumatic Loss Program. It was at Halifax Health that she was asked to do a life project and a death project: one focusing on the happier memories of her brother’s life, and the other about the feelings and emotions that she felt on the day he died.
“I cried the entire time I was creating it,” Bragg said. “But after I was done I thought ‘Wow, what a relief that was.’”
Bragg encouraged other members of the program to continue with the art, and one-by-one she saw them open up, and talk about their deceased loved ones. She saw them heal.
Through that discovery, Bragg founded “For Those Who Weep,” a blog where she shares her own artwork and findings through her personal grieving process. She also hosts her own art classes on the third Sunday of the month at Inverse Ministries in Ormond Beach.
“There’s a tendency to hold in all your emotions,” Bragg said. “It’s not socially acceptable to ball your eyes out in front of people. But sudden loss is so painful that there needs to be a catalyst to get the grief outside your body.”
Bragg also recently released a grief response journal that helps people open up about their losses in a healthy and restorative way. The book and the class schedule can be found on her website forthosewhoweep.com. All the proceeds from the book go to support the art classes, which are no cost to attend.
