[AXiDTrish]

Advisor's train on how to deal with the hard stuff in official training sessions or by learning the hands on way. I've gotten my fair share of o'dark thirty phone calls (thankfully nothing too bad), but I've never been trained on how to deal with a death impacting a chapter member.

A few weeks ago I arrived early for chapter when I received a call from one of my girls to meet her outside. I could hear the tears in her voice and this woman does NOT cry! I was met outside by her parents (who I'd met a number of times). They had picked up their daughter from the house a short time before and broke the news that her brother had died. She had decided to stay at school and in the house with her sisters and she/parents called me to bring her inside. I don't have kids (though sometimes I feel like I have 25 daughters), but it must have been incredibly hard for her parents to watch her walk away and into the building.

What I saw next was the most moving few moments I've ever seen in my sorority experience. With everyone seated for chapter she shared the sad news. She got to a stopping point and before she could take a breath every girl in that room had stood up and run to her. They held her in a giant 20+ person hug for almost 10 minutes without uttering a sound, except their collective tears.

Her parents questioned her about staying and I questioned her about staying too, but she knew what she needed. She needed her sisters around her. I was told later that everyone in the house ate dinner in her bedroom and we all kept a close watch over her until she went home that Friday. The sisterhood I saw that night was incredible.