About Go With Grace
Go With Grace is a new resource to guide and support New Zealanders through their experiences with death and dying. For many of us, we choose not to reflect on – or plan for – this moment in time. Go With Grace helps you to better understand and prepare for dying, to provide comfort and peace of mind to both you and your loved ones.
A free and independent website, Go With Grace is a collection of information, services, resources and stories to support anyone facing their own passing, or the death of a loved one. We also help you prepare for dying with our death planning tool, which ensures your wishes are known after you are gone.
Starting conversations
Death is a very tender and personal subject. We all face death, and we all face loss and grief throughout our lives – it is part of the human condition. However for many, the fear of dying stops us thinking about, and planning for, this final stage of life. Death can be incredibly difficult to talk about and even more difficult to accept. Go With Grace is a place to start these conversations.
We support people to better plan and prepare, so they have the peace of mind that their dying wishes are known. Having these conversations can also take away stress and anxiety for your loved ones, so they aren’t left struggling to make decisions without your guidance, at a time of loss and grief. We have worked very hard to ensure the information on Go With Grace is gentle and inclusive, because dying means so many different things to different people.
In the media
Click on the links below for articles and podcasts featuring Katy and Go With Grace.
- True North Podcast: We Need to Talk
- Dying to Know Podcast: Living with Grief after Suicide
- NZ Herald: Dying Matters Week
- Grief on Various Degrees Podcast: Dying Matters Week
Join us for Dying Matters Week
We are proud to be the national lead for Dying Matters Week connecting people across Aotearoa to start conversations in a safe space, learn from local experts and seek support to get affairs in order and navigate grief or loss.
Hands on Workshops • Art & Theatre • Local Resources • Educational Talks & Presentations • Conversation Spaces • Online Events & Podcasts • Poetry & Storytelling • Book Displays • Open Days
Meet our Go with Grace Founder
Kia ora, hello. I am a mother, daughter, sister, aunty, business owner, writer and someone who has experienced grief. Like many others, I have lost loved ones – grandparents, older relatives and friends. I have walked alongside many others who have lost people close to them; a witness to their grief and loss.
When I first experienced losing a loved one, it was frightening and overwhelmingly sad. It was hard to know how to feel, how to act and how to find my way through these new emotions. I remember sitting quietly with grandparents in funeral home viewing rooms, attending passionately moving tangihanga on marae and colourful celebrations of life in churches. I had been around death, but I wasn’t prepared for the heartbreak that came from losing a child.
In my life I have faced three significant losses – a daughter, a father and a partner.
My daughter, Faith, was born prematurely, at 22 ½ weeks. She was perfectly formed – all except for her heart. 15 years later, I farewelled my beautiful father, who was diagnosed with – and taken by – cancer, in just four short weeks. Two years later, my treasured partner died by suicide.
With each loss, I seriously questioned if I could face – let alone survive – the hurt, the grief and the pain that arrived violently at my door and smothered every inch of my life. I was surrounded by loved ones and yet I had moments of desperately wanting to be anywhere but here.
Somehow, each time, moment by moment, day by day, I found my way back. Through each loss, I struggled to find the answers, the advice and the information I needed to navigate through these intense times of grief. Go With Grace is my attempt to provide the information I was looking for, but couldn’t find – so that I can hopefully help support others.
It is with the most sincerest and heartfelt thanks that I acknowledge all the people who have helped me bring Go With Grace into the light. This is an idea I have carried for many years, and it is only with the support of many that Go With Grace has been made possible.
In love and kindness,
Katy Mandeno
The Go With Grace Podcast
We’ve recently launched a podcast as a new way to share ideas and spark meaningful conversations. We’ve found that listening to two people talk can often be a gentler, more engaging way to explore and learn about difficult topics.
Our first episode features Esther Periam from The Eldernet Group, and it’s live now! We’ve got plenty of inspiring guests lined up over the coming months, and we can’t wait to share more. If you know someone who’d love to join the conversation, we’d love to hear from you — please get in touch at hello@gowithgrace.nz.
Through this podcast, our hope is that others will be able to find the answers, knowledge and support they need when getting their affairs in order, grieving or facing the loss of a loved one. We hope you enjoy these compassionate conversations and feel inspired to start your own kōrero.
Thank you to our supporters
This website has been made possible through the advice and support of many wonderful individuals and organisations. We would like to specifically acknowledge Henderson Reeves, lawyers in Whangārei and Auckland and North Haven Hospice in Whangārei for the invaluable contribution of expert knowledge, guidance and support from their respective teams.
Explore some of our Go With Grace products….
from go with grace
Go With Grace Products
Go With Grace Products
Recordings & Video
Go With Grace Cards
Join the conversation
"*" indicates required fields