22nd

All her life, Anita Bramer was looking for answers. After the death of her father at age ten, she struggled to understand the difficult emotions associated with grief. This devastating loss created a ripple effect on the rest of her life, as she faced heavy depression in young adulthood-compounded by multiple other health complications-and desperately sought balance as a working mother with entrepreneurial ambitions. She spent three years planning and chasing her greatest dream-an innovative wellness business, Jo Wellness-only to have it close the day it opened due to bureaucratic red tape. Through financial ruin, a gruelling four-year lawsuit, multiple health crises, persistent chronic pain, and her mother's heartbreaking decline into dementia, Anita continued to seek answers.

By facing some of life's greatest challenges with patient faith, the courage to self-advocate, and a willingness to learn, she allowed herself to be transformed, to grow and change, to finally grieve the loss of her father, and come out the other side with a stronger sense of self and the answers she'd been looking.
With humour and warmth, Anita tells of the ways her suffering has made her resilient, and offers advice, empathy, and wisdom to fellow sufferers, with hopes of inspiring meaningful change on a personal level as well as in our larger communities.