This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Amy Biancolli, who lost both her husband and her sister to suicide, talks about surviving those blows and figuring out how to move on. Loss forces the living to reinvent themselves, to re-tool family dynamics and to find meaning in life and laughter with the loved ones who remain. The grief has a mind of its own, frequently ignoring the tidy “stages” we expect of it. But so do moments of levity, which come and go at will. Biancolli tells some of her own story, including her decision to write about a personal subject so often hushed in public.

Amy Biancolli is the author of Figuring Shit Out: Love, Laughter, Suicide, and Survival (Behler Publications), a memoir of life after the death of her husband, writer Christopher D. Ringwald.

Currently an arts reporter and columnist for the Albany Times Union, she previously served as film critic for the Houston Chronicle. Amy is also the author of Fritz Kreisler: Love’s Sorrow, Love’s Joy (1998 Amadeus Press) and House of Holy Fools: A Family Portrait in Six Cracked Parts (2004 Lulu Press), which earned her Albany Author of the Year. She has three children, lives in Albany and blogs at figuringshitout.net.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)