A few weeks ago when Malcolm Jamal Warner died, I shared some thoughts and practical advice related to celebrity deaths and how they can affect the parts of the population who have never met the person in real life. At the end, I signed it “Your Resident Grief Expert”. Per usual, a ninny trolling around on the web took their time to send me a strongly worded message asking how I dared call myself an expert. I chuckled and kept moving about my day. 

But….it sat with me for a minute. And the more it festered, I realized that I was wrong. I did a thing…a while ago. A bit longer than a while ago. Quite a bit ago, like uhh….two years. 

I planned to share the news and some pictures…but…I didn’t. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t at the time (more on that later). Time kept on ticking. 2023 turned to 2024, 2024 turned to 2025, my little guy is now taller than me with some facial scruff and I still haven’t said a word. 

So, today, on National Grief Awareness day, allow me to reintroduce myself. 

My name is Taya. T to the A-Y-A. Y’all feel me?

A good good sistafriend has started calling me Thanos. After the death of my husband in 2012 and my father in 2014, I began using my lived experience to help other people navigate life after the death of a loved one. Death doesn’t scare me, nor am I uncomfortable talking or writing about it. I’ve spent hundreds of hours helping family, friends and virtual strangers acting as a grief guide, especially newly widowed people. 

I decided that I wanted to pursue a Masters degree to study death. Specifically, Thanatology. What is Thanatology, you ask. It is the scientific study of death, dying, grief and bereavement. It encompasses a vast landscape of topics, including the biological, psychological, social, cultural, and, for some, spiritual aspects of death. Thanatology tunnels into the very meaning of mortality. The psychological definition peers into the emotional dimensions of death, grief, and bereavement. 

From 2021-2023, I threw myself deep into that Masters program. I graduated on May 6, 2023 with a Masters of Science in Thanatology. Your girl was even chosen as the student speaker for the Class of 2023. 

Let’s be clear about what an expert is. Merriam-Webster defines is as, “one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject.”

So yes, I actually AM an expert. Y’all know I’m a humble person, so it’s taken a lot for me to attach the word “expert” to myself, but thanks to my therapist, inner circle, and industry colleagues, it’s done. I’m blending the academic knowledge that I’ve earned with my lived experience as a young Black widow parenting an Autistic son to help bring death and grief education into your consciousness. I look forward to sharing more of what I’m working on in the future. If you want or need to talk about death and all things related, I’m your person. If you want to talk about non-death losses (losing a job, infertility, health issues, moving cities/states/schools, losing a dream, or the things people are losing in light of the turmoil in the United States, etc), I’m your person. And if you’re developing a project and you need a speaker, panelist or workshop facilitator to talk about any aspect of death, grief, bereavement or resilience, call your Resident Expert!