Judi Merriam is a local author, singer, actor, director, wife, and mother. In December 2011, her eighteen-year-old son Jenson took his own life in an act that blindsided everyone who knew him, and which changed her life, and that of her family, forever.
The suicide of a loved one can be devastating for those left behind and bring deep despair and seemingly endless grief. Judi was forced to confront profound feelings of loss and guilt and a future so very different from what she thought it would be. In an honest and soul-searching memoir, Empty Shoes by the Door, Judi reflects with grace and courage on the fragile and amazing, terrifying and broken, glorious and painful experience of living life after an unfathomable loss.