Founder of EMPOWER weareempower.org

Here’s what my dad did for me after my mother died: He told me he loved me every single day. It wasn’t his job to teach me how to grieve. It was his job to love me. -Cara Belvin

This episode features Cara Belvin, one of the first women to share her story on The Story Behind Her Success when we launched the show back in 2018. She’s the founder of a charity called EMPOWER, which creates community for children grieving the loss of a parent. Raised in Southington, Connecticut, Cara’s mother, Kit, died of breast cancer when she was only 37 years old, leaving a grieving husband and two young children. Cara was only 9 years old when this life-changing experience happened to her, and in this interview, she explains that it was her father and a large extended family who surrounded her with love and support. The loss of our mothers early in our lives is what initially connected us. We grew up about 10 miles apart in Connecticut, and if I had met her back then, I would have taken her by the hand and shown her the way. My 18-year-old self would have reassured her that she would survive. EMPOWER is Cara’s homage to her mother; originally created to connect girls with female mentors who have also experienced motherloss, EMPOWER now includes boys and nonbinary kids, connecting them to mentors who know firsthand how it feels to lose a parent. In this interview, we learn that Cara has raised 10 million dollars in 13 years . What started as a bereavement program with only 7 girls in Boston is now a national non-profit that helped more than 1000 children in 2025. This Father’s Day, we acknowledge the love of our fathers during the most difficult time of our lives. “Grief is like a tattoo, says Cara, it will fade, but it’s not going anywhere. I see the weight of the world on the shoulders of a lot of dads who are parenting alone after the loss of a partner. I have a lot of empathy for them, because they look just like my dad.” For 27 minutes of #fathersday inspiration, just hit that download button. #womeninspiringwomen #motherloss #fatherloss #bereavement #children