Tony Lynch founder of the nonprofit Memories of us LTD...grief support for men/The Global Grief Networ

, Host of the podcast Grief let's talk about it podcast and #1 international bestselling author, my journey started at the early age of 6 when I was molested by my neighbors son, so at an early age I learned what people was capable of and vowed to never let anyone hurt me again so I became a very silent kid keeping straight A's in school ,Leaving home at the age of 15 I dropped out of high school and went to job corps in Washington D.C for 2 years obtaining my G.E.D in which I thought was the best time of my life, until I moved to colorado in 1992 and was introduced to the gangs it was like I left 1 hell and entered into another it didn't take long before that dark side of me began to show itself and it became a game of survival which I knew all too well, in 1994 I was sentenced to 5 years in prison for a crime I never committed and upon my release in 1999. I was thrust back into the streets and back to survival mode in early 2000's I was shot 22 times by some rivals and survived. Immediately after I became homeless and began to wander the streets trying to figure it out although it was a lonely rode something in me refused to give up and 1 day during a blizzard, I began to walk which seemed for hours I began to find my way I eventually landed in Front of a labor ready and began to work construction for daily pay and eventually began to climb out of the so called broke stage and was able to get into a motel but it didn't come with an alcohol addiction which led me to losing everything yet again and yet again I began to wonder aimlessly, until I met some people that for some odd reason began to help me and eventually for the first time in my life I was able to get into my own place which led me to alot of weekend partying and this is where I met my sons mother. Jake was born December 18th 2006 he was my christmas baby and life was seemingly good until his mother began to show her true narcissistic ways and for a lack of better words destroyed everything I thought AI was taking me to court for my son and for 21/2 years she and the courts destroyed me and again I found myself on the streets with a new determination on my heart to not give up with the need to be a part of my sons life and eventually I caught a break I got into another place and his mother finally got caught for the abusive person she was and i got partial custody of my son which turned out to be the best thing in my life for not only did I get him 98% of the time but I learned how to be a man and a good father , for the first time in my life I was truly filled with a purpose and for years it was just he and I up until October 31st of 2015 when my son suffered a massive overdose because his pharmacist mixed his medication very wrong so for 3 days I watched him suffer while the doctors did all the wrong things and fortunately he pulled himself out of it and wer thought we was in the home stretch until 9 months later june 14th to be exact he fell ill and we ended back in the hospital and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with hi m so they wanted to perform a seemed to be a simple procedure give him a super anti biotic and blood transfusion and somewhere during this procedure all hell broke loose and there was a code blue nurses from every floor began to flood into the room and as a parent you hear the dr say those words no parent wants to hear get the parents we are losing him I walked into the room to watch my son take his last breath, this moment changed the direction of my life where I went into a really dark place and the journey of building myself back up through losing everything yet again and almost taking my life led down the road of grief and having and building an intimate relationship with it led me finding my pupose to helping other men like myself begin to heal, communicate and finding their new version of themselves in their own individual grief journey.