Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Author Pat McLeod Is Helping To Change Our World

I wish someone had taught me how to mourn. — Being white, straight, middle-class, American, and male has shielded me from a lot of life’s pain and many occasions for mourning. Whenever I experience physical, emotional, or relational pain, I have learned to deal with it by denying that it is there. Not only was I never taught how to mourn; I was taught not to mourn. The mantras of my childhood included: “Big boys don’t cry!” “Tough it out!” “Show no visible sign of weakness!” “Focus on the positive!”

As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Pat McLeod.

Pat and his wife Tammy McLeod coauthored the book Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was — and Learning to Live Well with What Is in which they share their journey into the world of ambiguous loss that began after their son suffered a traumatic brain injury playing football. Pat and Tammy serve as…