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Founder’s Award OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center November 2011
Fredda’s acceptance speech: "Thank you, Jo-Ann for being my mentor
and my inspiration. I want to extend my congratulations to Sandy Banks. Sandy, it is wonderful to
celebrate with you tonight! I am incredibly honored to be the recipient of this year’s Founder’s
Award.
My life is about following my heart. I am magnetically drawn to people
and organizations that energize my spirit and ignite my passion. And that is exactly what I have found
at OUR HOUSE.
Throughout my career, I often
imagined how wonderful it would be to have a book that would help others navigate through the emotional journey of end of
life and grief. Not a textbook, but a gentle, tender companion that would inform the heart as well as the
mind. I had no idea the day I met Norine Dresser in 2007 that my dream would so soon become a reality.
Co-authoring Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love with you, Norine, was truly a labor of love and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your
talent and your friendship. Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love with you, Norine, was truly a labor of love and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your
talent and your friendship. My deep gratitude goes to Jo-Ann Lautman and the Board of
Directors for the trust you have placed in me to carry out the mission of OUR HOUSE; and to the GALA committee for creating
such a chic and elegant evening. Thank you to Tiffany Cannis for your wisdom and constant encouragement and to the most compassionate,
dedicated staff and volunteers imaginable…I love working with all of you. To my dear friends, thank you for providing me with your endless support and keeping me calm and centered…at
least most of the time. And above all to my family. Thank you for making me laugh, letting me cry and for
surrounding me with your love. I am so grateful to all of you for being here tonight, for opening your
hearts to ensure that OUR HOUSE continues to thrive."
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Fredda’s Biography
When Fredda feels passionate about an
organization, she embraces it 100%. And her devotion to OUR HOUSE has been evident from the moment
she walked through our doors in 1994 and felt an immediate simpatico with our beloved founder Jo-Ann Lautman.
Fredda’s compassion and her dedication to accompany grievers along their healing journey made her a welcome addition
to the OUR HOUSE family of volunteers. In 2000 when she was invited to take on the responsibilities as
Clinical Director of Adult Programs and Education, Fredda enthusiastically accepted. Fredda learned at an early age about the sacredness of life's beginnings and endings. “My mother and
I attended funerals and paid condolence calls as naturally as we celebrated when babies were born,” she recalls.
A native Los Angelino, Fredda received her Master’s degree in Public Health from UCLA and was immediately drawn to working
with people diagnosed with life-changing illness and those facing end of life. As she looked to her future,
Fredda envisioned cultivating in other healthcare professionals an increased sensitivity to life’s final chapter.
In pursuit of this goal she earned an MA in Clinical Psychology and became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist,
Certified in Thanatology: Death, Dying and Bereavement. In her eighteen years at OUR HOUSE, Fredda has been instrumental in expanding the number and
variety of adult support groups, enhancing the training and supervision of group leaders, enriching the medical education
program, developing the professional continuing education curriculum, and for the first time this year, offering grief workshops
that are open to the community-at-large. The highpoint of Fredda’s
career was co-authoring with Norine Dresser their book Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love: Your Emotional
Journey Through End of Life and Grief, selected by the Library Journal as one of the best self-help books of 2010.
“I always wanted to write a book that would convey the depth and intimacy of being with
death and dying and my belief in the healing power of the human spirit. OUR HOUSE and my incredible co-author
Norine made that dream a reality.” Fredda is continually inspired by the OUR HOUSE group members, her devoted colleagues, our dedicated volunteers,
and the love and support of family and friends. As a wife, a mother, and a grandmother, Fredda’s
life is filled with appreciation and passion for fully embracing all of life’s moments.
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