Meet Cheryl Baker, Gloves for Grief Board Member

Cheryl Baker was born in St. Louis, Missouri into a military family. Growing up, she lived in Kentucky, New York Texas, Portugal, Japan and England. John and Cheryl met at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and married two years later. They raised a son and daughter who gave them five amazing grandchildren. In 1991, John and Cheryl founded a ministry called Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback Church for anyone struggling with a hurt, hang-up or habit. Thirty-three years later, the program can be found in over 35,000 churches across the world. 

After fifty-one years of marriage, John passed away in February, 2021. Cheryl couldn’t find people who understood the gravity of her loss. She decided to contact eleven other women who also had lost their husbands to connect on zoom in September 2021. This group shared the roller coaster of the emotions of grief, the crushing first anniversaries of the passing of our husbands and even additional hurtful experiences. But then the group started sharing victories; new jobs, new homes, and getting back to our former activities. That original zoom group of widows wanted to help others journey through grief and healing. So Grief Healing Choices was born! 

There are zoom groups for: widows, widowers, caregivers, estrangement, women who have lost children, mothers or fathers who suffer the loss of children due to drugs, alcohol or suicide, grandmothers who grieve the loss of grandchildren, groups for the loss of a parent, fiancé, and loss of siblings and friends.

After attending her first Gloves For Grief event at Saddleback church, she shared with Terra that this concept would spread like wild fire. As G4G’s newest board member, she is excited to get involved on a deeper level and find synergies between their grief organizations.