When Brittany Gunther needed a helpful hand Mourning Hope was there. The grief center, located near Nebraska Wesleyan University has been helping people for 15 years.

Since 1994, Mourning Hope has provided children, teens and young adults the opportunity to grieve in a safe and supportive environment. Their services are available to all kids that have experienced the death of someone special in their life.

Brittany Gunther is grateful that Mourning Hope entered her life. During her senior year of high school in Arnold, Nebraska, she lost her aunt and two cousins in a head-on car crash. Brittany says, "After I lost JoDee and the girls everything from your senior year is usually pretty important and then it wasn't."

Brittany arrived at Nebraska Wesleyan in a fog, "I came to college and I didn't know what I was going to do, undecided in my major, undecided in everything."

She searched for a meaningful work-study job, "And it just happened that it was a grief center by some miracle it was a grief center."

Instantly, Mourning Hope gave Brittany's life new meaning, "Just something about it was like you need to do this. This is something that's going to be really powerful in your life."

Soon after she started working there, Brittany joined a support group, "You definitely feel like it was something that was meant for you."

Brittany is now studying child psychology and wants to be a full-time counselor after college. "I know my own feelings having experienced grief like this and to be able to help people and give back to the program is something that means more to me than anything else."

Brittany is thankful that her Mourning Hope miracle just fell right into her lap, "From just some way to make money to something that's going to help me personally and on to something I want to do for the rest of my life."

Brittany's promising counseling career will soon get underway. Having just finished her facilitator training, the sophomore is looking forward to receiving her first hands-on experience when she leads a grief series at Mourning Hope this summer.

It's important to note that all of the Mourning Hope services are free. As they're funded by the United Way and the generosity of the community.