https://www.karenklak.com/news-and-kind-words daily 0.75 2022-05-15 https://www.karenklak.com/news-and-kind-words/the-inner-circle-with-carrie-doll monthly 0.5 2022-05-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/a1957b72-a12a-4cd1-a5db-ac264ec71560/Carrie+Doll+Instagram+-+Guest+Cards+%26+Podcast+Cover+%281%29.png news & kind words - The Inner Circle with Carrie Doll - I am humbled and grateful to have stepped into The Inner Circle. https://www.karenklak.com/news-and-kind-words/oapu2jcsh85si4nv0qxz9jva9jnna1 monthly 0.5 2021-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1620616878577-5U1UV2S3G3HZSUVWBBYR/hush_01videocapture13.jpg news & kind words - Hush Foundation https://www.karenklak.com/news-and-kind-words/backpacking-through-europe-ynrfr monthly 0.5 2021-02-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1607654949832-7EGIQOVTWCN92369MBGJ/image001.png news & kind words - Gathering of Kindness https://www.karenklak.com/haleyisms daily 0.75 2022-02-06 https://www.karenklak.com/haleyisms/perfecto-change-o monthly 0.5 2022-02-06 https://www.karenklak.com/haleyisms/o4t0ig0n0ivfp59iw3e46deej9rozh monthly 0.5 2021-10-10 https://www.karenklak.com/haleyisms/i-need-help monthly 0.5 2021-08-01 https://www.karenklak.com/haleyisms/you-never-know monthly 0.5 2021-05-09 https://www.karenklak.com/haleyisms/plenty-to-see-here monthly 0.5 2021-08-01 https://www.karenklak.com/haleyisms/blog-post-title-one-ydxk6 monthly 0.5 2021-02-05 https://www.karenklak.com/compassionate-care daily 0.75 2021-11-07 https://www.karenklak.com/compassionate-care/the-human-side-of-doctors monthly 0.5 2021-11-07 https://www.karenklak.com/compassionate-care/more-than-a-meal monthly 0.5 2021-11-07 https://www.karenklak.com/compassionate-care/blog-post-title-two-zdwgf-3JQjn monthly 0.5 2021-04-28 https://www.karenklak.com/compassionate-care/blog-post-title-one-6s3ja monthly 0.5 2021-04-17 https://www.karenklak.com/memorable-moments daily 0.75 2021-06-20 https://www.karenklak.com/memorable-moments/a-memorable-birthday monthly 0.5 2021-06-27 https://www.karenklak.com/memorable-moments/adding-memories-twelve-years-later monthly 0.5 2021-04-17 https://www.karenklak.com/memorable-moments/blog-post-title-one-lttdm monthly 0.5 2021-02-05 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-grief daily 0.75 2026-03-22 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-grief/gratitude-my-saving-grace monthly 0.5 2026-03-22 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-grief/sweet-dreams-are-made-of-this monthly 0.5 2024-12-15 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-grief/the-importance-of-a-grief-guide monthly 0.5 2024-06-23 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-grief/a-new-chapter monthly 0.5 2024-03-03 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-grief/blog-post-title-one-2cn7x monthly 0.5 2023-04-06 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-writing daily 0.75 2025-03-27 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-writing/blog-post-title-one-88hm3-2xhb6 monthly 0.5 2025-03-27 https://www.karenklak.com/thoughts-on-writing/blog-post-title-one-88hm3 monthly 0.5 2025-03-27 https://www.karenklak.com/home daily 1.0 2025-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1604252849507-0XDOU5Z8TVEW0KMGYKVW/DSC_2366_01-web.jpg Home - Welcome! If you are here because we know each other, thank you for pausing to visit. And if we haven’t met yet, thank you for finding your way here. Either way, I invite you to explore and hope you find things you were not expecting or ways that we might connect. For those who don’t know me, I would like to tell you a bit about myself. I am honoured to be the mother of four children. I became unexpectedly immersed in the medical world when my daughter Haley was a toddler, and haven’t left, spending years as a volunteer sharing my lived experiences in health care with professional and student audiences, then working to support others sharing theirs. I wrote my first book, happy faces only: the story of a little girl who lived, for familes like ours who have a child with medical challenges and for the people who care for them and about them. I am currently immersed in the messy process of writing my second book. The title swirling in my head is a secret as I am a very private writer (until I’m ready to publish and then I don’t feel private at all) but my daughter refers to it as sad faces only! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1610205661581-UBGJG33F5QXXG304HMCM/SCHF_ProudlySupporting_Logo_CMYK_TransparentBkgrd.png Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1610205682498-ZB4BRRZVE1VY62YH4LLE/KWCS+Logo_colour.jpg Home https://www.karenklak.com/contact daily 0.75 2026-03-15 https://www.karenklak.com/about daily 0.75 2021-01-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1604863120604-Y1IF6ZA6RQQQO533R489/Karen+Klak+headshot.jpg About - Author, storyteller and mother of four. I am introverted by nature, but those who know me well are familiar with my inability to tell a story without a long introduction to set the scene and copious detail to paint a clear picture. I am captivated by the stories of others, the deep, personal, and often challenging stories that shape their lives and make them the beautiful and complex people that they are. I have spent the last many years sharing my own story and supporting others in sharing theirs in the medical world. My work is my passion, and I have my daughter, Haley, to thank for setting me on this unexpected path. Within the span of six years, Greg and I had four children. I became a medical mom when Haley was 17 months old. I grew into that role over time, then became a bereaved parent when Haley died at age 11. Regardless, I am and always will be a mother of four. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1604862894897-YV54C0IZRN9XSAMHEEHR/DSC_4619a.jpg About - The Things I Love I love living in Edmonton where our summer days are long and hot, and winter days are the opposite, but much of the time, the sun is shining, and the sky is blue. I savour time spent outdoors — walking, bike riding, gardening, and simply being in nature. Holidays for me are spent in tranquil, beautiful places surrounded by water, mountains, and trees. Thankfully, I do not live within view of an ocean or I would never accomplish anything, as I would spend my days captivated by the ebb and flow of the waves. I also love to read, immersing myself in fictional worlds and satisfying my thirst to learn through works of fact. I have written forever, mostly for fun, including long letters to my children, endless thank you cards, volumes of journals, scribbling things to remember or to do on scraps of paper, and creating strange song parodies that make my family question my sanity and lack of more important endeavours. I am currently working on my next book, a continuation of happy faces only, offering a personal retrospective on the experience of grieving the loss of a child. https://www.karenklak.com/happy-faces-only daily 0.75 2025-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1615134815904-ZYE94RJTINDEXP1G4ML7/HappyFacesBookCover_03Mar2021_01new+small.jpg happy faces only - happy faces only the story of a little girl who lived Our daughter, Haley, was born perfectly healthy, but her world and that of our family changed drastically 17 months later. She became a patient, I became a medical mom, and our family embarked on a journey that was filled with medical twists and turns, incredible joys, and shattering sorrows. Haley died at age 11, but most importantly, Haley truly lived. In happy faces only, I invite you to follow our journey from beginning to end, focusing on the waves of the abundant middle. This is a story of the evolution of our family, and the compassionate care and support that we all received from those expected to offer it, and from so many who were surprising participants in Haley’s life. It is at its core an unforgettable love story. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1619056183398-4HE8MQZF5XDDBVG3HR3W/DSC_4767.jpg happy faces only - The story of a little girl who lived… happy faces only tells the story of my daughter, Haley, and more completely, the journey of our whole family during her lifetime. What started as my attempt to capture and retain the details of Haley’s life evolved into a desire for others to understand a journey such as ours. Not everyone has the opportunity to gain a lived experience of having a child with significant and life-threatening medical challenges – and that’s a good thing. But many will know such a family, either personally or professionally, and may not know how best to interact with that family or support them. I would like happy faces only to provide a window into their world and give people the courage to connect with those families in a meaningful way. And for those who are living or have undergone a similar experience, my desire is to offer relatability and generate hope – hope that even in the most heart-breaking and desperate of situations, there are golden moments of pure joy and intense living and those times will never be forgotten. I invite you to spend a few hours in our family’s world and get to know Haley, my little girl who lived. https://www.karenklak.com/reveries-2 daily 0.75 2021-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1612195468999-RT4PTUC9QTWEBMUY0HQ3/DSC_0442.jpg Reveries - Reverie, by definition, is “a state of pleasantly being lost in one’s thoughts, a daydream.” Ah, those precious moments of recollection where I recreate, in my mind’s eye, Haley’s interactions – with me, those relayed to me by others, and those I was privileged to witness. With the painful realization that no new memories will ever come about after someone you love has died, going backwards is the only way to spend time with them, see them move, hear them speak, watch them live. And while those memories initially bring up feelings of sorrow, severed detachment and anguish, the joy in those times slowly surfaces. For me, my first subconscious times of reverie occurred when I wrote notes of gratitude to the many people who had cared for Haley and those who had chosen to spend time with her. Those recollections created a practice of gratitude that allowed me to cope with my grief. In writing happy faces only, I spent time reliving her life and recording much of what I recalled. As a result, I wrote many stories, that although not integral to the story I was sharing, provide more insights into who she was and interesting encounters she had with others. A few of those additional memories are here, and more will be added regularly. I invite you to explore and get to know more about Haley. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1612196804295-GGTVQNUKN45KRE3RIY1H/karenklak-reveries-_0001_DSC_2565_01.jpg Reveries - Compassionate Care Countless memorable interactions occurred between Haley and her health care providers, and it never failed to amaze me that these caring people formed such genuine and loving bonds with my child. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1612197057649-4Y2EFWWB8P7DJJRWZL2K/karenklak-reveries-_0002_DSC_5249.jpg Reveries - Memorable Moments The encounters Haley had with others during the last six weeks of her life created powerful and meaningful memories for me. I know that when she died, her ability to create new memories ended, so I hold those encounters dear as they brought me great joy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1612197167188-FG21YKGA24XAX53093Y6/karenklak-reveries-_0000_DSC_0012%2Bcrop.jpg Reveries - Haleyisms Like all children, Haley said some things that captured who she was and her approach to life. https://www.karenklak.com/join-mailing-list daily 0.75 2021-02-11 https://www.karenklak.com/musings-2 daily 0.75 2025-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/9b84db41-edcf-40c0-937e-b3335f2a61d1/IMG_3442.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/fe2198a9-bbda-4651-ba01-061e65374926/DSC_5657.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f9eec4f2b8135545c45031a/1743089905257-QAXI37YC8OKJSN19T35J/unsplash-image-2aFp6EWWs58.jpg