Jill L Shapiro
Memoir & Self-Help Author
Jill Shapiro is a wife of 30 years, mother of seven, author, and grief coach dedicated to helping others navigate life after loss. The devastating death of her son, Zach, forced her to confront not only unimaginable grief but a lifetime of unprocessed pain she could no longer ignore.
Through her own healing journey, Jill discovered that grief is not something to fix or overcome, but something we learn to live beside. She now works with individuals navigating loss, creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, and not alone in their pain.
Jill is the author of After the Break, where she shares her deeply personal story to help others find light in the darkest moments.
My Story
I didn’t plan to do this work.
I was a wife, a mom of seven, living a full, messy, beautiful life. I didn’t have everything figured out, but I was showing up the best way I knew how.
And then my son Zach died.
Everything I thought I understood about life, about strength, about myself… broke.
Grief wasn’t just something I felt; it was something I was living inside of. What I didn’t expect was how much it would bring up everything else I had spent years avoiding: old pain, old wounds, the quiet belief that I wasn’t enough.
For a long time, I tried to push through it. To be strong. To hold it together. But grief doesn’t work that way. Eventually, I had to stop running and turn toward it. And that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Not because it fixed anything, but because it didn’t.
What I found instead was this:
Grief doesn’t go away. You learn how to live with it. You learn how to carry love and loss at the same time. You learn that healing isn’t about becoming who you were before; it’s about becoming someone who can hold what’s been lost and still keep going.
I’m not here because I have all the answers. I’m here because I’ve lived it. And I know how much it matters to have someone sit with you in it, without trying to fix you.
You don’t have to do this alone.
Are you struggling with loss?
Grief can show up over the loss of anything that truly matters to us… a loved one, a career, a life you hoped to live. It doesn’t look the same to everyone, and it doesn’t just go away on its own. But you don’t have to push through alone. I’m here to support you, no matter where your grief came from, or how it’s currently manifesting in your life. We can work through it together!
