Bereavement Leave Must Include Everyone: Megan's Experience
"When Olivia, the little girl I had nannied for nearly three years, suddenly passed away, I didn’t just lose a child I had cared for. I lost someone I loved deeply. Livy was family to me, and her family had become my family too.
I was working for a different employer by then, and I was incredibly fortunate that they understood the magnitude of my loss and allowed me to take bereavement leave. But they didn’t have to. In the eyes of the law, Livy wasn’t my family. The time I was given to grieve her, to be with the people I loved, and to begin processing an unimaginable loss was entirely dependent on the kindness of my employer.
Family isn’t always defined by blood, marriage, or a legal relationship. Sometimes it is built through years of loving someone, caring for them, watching them grow, and showing up for one another. My relationship with Livy was no less meaningful, and my grief when she died was no less real, because there wasn’t a legal name for the way we were family.
SB 1149 recognizes something many of us already know: family can take many forms, and when we lose someone we consider family, we deserve the time and space to grieve them."
Megan Cowdell, Olivia's Nanny
Grief isn’t limited to immediate family members, so why is bereavement leave?
Take action here: workfamilyca.org/bereavement-leave
