Jenny Lisk

Author Details

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Biography

Jenny Lisk is the founder of the Widowed Parent Institute. She is an award-winning author and widowed mom who is dedicated to helping widowed parents increase their family's well-being. Jenny’s books, Future Widow and Widowed Parents Unite, and her show, The Widowed Parent Podcast, guide the journey of solo parenting after loss.

Jenny’s work has been featured in The Washington Post, Katie Couric Media, Yahoo Life, ParentMap, and more. She lives in Redmond, Washington, with her two teenagers.

Achievements & Recognitions

New Day NW: Helping Children Through Grief

Author and podcast host Jenny Lisk and Our Treehouse executive director Josh Clements discuss child grief. CLICK TO WATCH

Katie Couric Media: In Need of a Good Cry? 8 Emotional Books That Made Me Really Feel

Jenny Lisk’s husband doesn’t make sense anymore and she can’t ignore it another minute. READ MORE…

Washington Post: Children process grief differently than adults. Here’s what parents need to know.

But parents want answers. Jenny Lisk, host of the Widowed Parent Podcast, said in an email that when her husband died of brain cancer, she searched everywhere for a book that would tell her how to parent her 9- and 11-year-old children through the loss. At the time, she wondered, “How was I supposed to support them and hopefully not completely ruin their lives?” READ MORE…

Yahoo Life: These parents were grieving the loss of spouses while also holding it together for their kids. Here’s how they did it.

When Jenny Lisk's husband Dennis died of brain cancer in 2016, the mom of two struggled to care for their children, 9 and 11, while managing her own grief.

"Grieving while also parenting grieving kids is hard," she tells Yahoo Life.

In fact, says Lisk, who authored a book, Future Widow, about her experience, "I found the parenting part to be the hardest." READ MORE…

ParentMap: This Mother Is on a Mission to Help Widowed Parents and Their Children Thrive

Jenny Lisk’s self-described “perfectly normal” life — a successful career as an IT professional, husband, two kids, a dog — altered irrevocably one Friday night in the spring of 2015 when her husband Dennis mentioned that he had been experiencing bouts of dizziness that week. Concern mounted over the ensuing days, as he began exhibiting signs of confusion and forgetfulness. READ MORE…

Mayo Clinic Press: Helping children cope with death

Dennis Lisk, of Redmond, Washington, died of glioblastoma at age 44. His wife, Jenny, and their two kids were shocked. One day he was perfectly fine, and eight months later he was dead. In the aftermath, Jenny not only had to deal with her own grief but also somehow help her children through the process. She found herself trying to answer questions from her kids, like “Why did Dad have to die?” READ MORE…

Books by this Author

Future Widow