Losing a loved one so suddenly after a vicious accident is truly heartbreaking. They do not simply leave your life, but they do so without warning. Todd Lingel faced this same situation when he lost his mother and sister in a road crash. In this episode, he shares how he started Kares Foundation to honor their memories by guiding teens and young adults in dealing with grief and loss. Todd breaks down his goals for further helping the youth, from providing college scholarships to hosting summer camps. He also talks about the bitter reality of getting mad at God after a loved one transitions, as well as how to face and calm down your upset heart and mind. I am sharing my experience of loving the same man for 32 years, a mother to two adult children, a retired military officer, a breast cancer survivor, and my connections with others.  Anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts should reach out to a suicide hotline or local emergency number in their country: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/suicide/suicide-prevention-hotlines-resources-worldwide. — Watch the episode here Listen to the episode here Coping With Grief After An Accident With Todd Lingel Todd, welcome to the Widowhood.  Thank you very much, I appreciate it.  Thank you for being here. I’d like to read some of your bio information before we get started, is that okay?  Definitely.  My name is Todd. I am the founder and director of the Kares Foundation. I grew up in a small community in Idaho where I learned the value of communication and the meaning of integrity. My mother and sister were killed when I was young, which has led me through life with a passion for helping others. This has led me to start the Kares Foundation, which is built on communication, trust, integrity, and helping others.  Our key focus is to teach our teens and young adults to make better decisions to prevent unnecessary accidents and death in the future due to peer pressure, drinking, driving, and social media. The big key for me is to help those at risk make a good educated decision about their future. I tell them that it is okay to make mistakes because that’s how we learn, but I want to keep those mistakes to the ones we learn from, not the ones that last a lifetime, i.e. felonies. Here are a few goals we have.  1) Help save lives by speaking to as many kids and adults as possible. 2) Provide college scholarships to kids who have been directly affected by drunk driving, drug use, etc. 3) Host a summer camp for kids, which includes counseling and having fun being kids. 4) The big goal that we are researching and raising funds for is to open a treatment facility or sober living for teens and young adults. KS. What does KS stand for, Todd?  That’s another part of the logo. We have the K and the S of the Kares. It’s around the logo.  Looking Back Kares, that word has some more meaning. Would you like to elaborate on that? It does have meaning. I always knew that I wanted it to be named Kares Foundation. I’ve spoken off probably for twenty years to kids that were part of a youth group or whatever would ask me to go to, their driver’s training class or something like that and speak. When I started this, I wanted to start speaking in a church that I grew up that my dad and stepmom were going to. People there knew my mom when she was alive. They’re elderly now. I talked to the minister and it was crazy that I don’t remember how exactly it came up.  I think my dad was involved as well. We figured out that his wife’s grandmother was the first responder to my mom’s wreck. It was crazy. At first, I was skeptical. I was three years old. It was 1975. It was June 14th, 1975 when they were killed. The first question was, “Is she alive?” They’re like, “Yeah.” She’s about 30 minutes from here where we were in Idaho. I said, “Could I give her a call?” “Absolutely.” I gave her a call. She said, “I’d love to meet.” I met with her and so I asked some questions. I was still skeptical until I started talking more.  My uncle was a deputy coroner in a neighboring county that she had worked with, so she knew our family name. When she came on the scene and all of that, I don’t know if she had met my mom before or not, but when she came on the scene, she said, “I’ll never forget that. I have never forgotten your mom’s wreck because it was horrific.” I’m like, “Okay. Will you please tell me how the scene was?” When she said she got there, there was an older lady that had gotten there first. She must’ve been trained in first aid through 4-H or something because she had a whole ton of gauze.  She goes, “Everybody was wrapped in gauze except for your mother and sister who were deceased.” My brother was in the back seat and he survived, but his arm was wrapped up in his head. The drunk driver was wrapped up. He was still alive. This started to get a little bit off for me even talking about it more. They hit driver to driver head-on. He was in an F150 pickup. My mom and my sister were in a 66 Chevelle Super Sport. When they hit, it popped the hood up on my mom’s car and drove it right through the windshield.  Back in ‘75, kids didn’t have booster seats. They didn’t sit and they stood up in the front seat. The hood hit my sister right above the eyes and decapitated her and she died instantly. Her death certificate says she died instantly. The first responder told me, “Your sister was sitting in the seat like you normally would sit in a