The Soul Bear ™ Story 

A call came to New Hope Grief Support Community (www.newhopegrief.org) from Jennifer, the mom of    Devon age 5 and Jonathon age 9, two special little boys who had just experienced the sudden death of their 2 year old brother Ethan. Jennifer asked if the boys should attend Ethan’s viewing and funeral. They were asking to go. After a conversation on how important that would be for their grief journey I volunteered to be their “guide”.

The next day I carefully explained with age-appropriate terms and descriptions each part of the traditions of what are a mortuary, casket, cremains container, viewing, funeral, and burial before we would actually be experiencing or discussing that portion of the traditions of the end of celebrating a person’s life after their death. Many questions were asked and appropriate, truthful answers were given. During our time together discussing burial or cremation I could see their child-like concerns were there and were very disturbing for them. To them Ethan looked like he was sleeping, and might wake up-only to be stuck in that box and buried under all that dirt. In my best effort I attempted to reinforce he was really no longer there but in heaven. This was too abstract for their concrete minds to comprehend. As I drove home I knew that I needed to have a better explanation for future children as well a visual that would help them understand the burial or cremation. I came up with the idea of a teddy bear with a soul.

By the next week I created Soul Bear™. I designed a prototype to be made and used by anyone who would like to help children with life and death education, but also those same concerns of teaching children about burial and cremation traditions. The next step was to enlist a partnership with design artist and former vice president of Mattel ™ boy toy division, John Handy. John redesigned a more expressive, cuddly, and representative of any person, any age or ethnicity. Maria Saenz, fashion designer created the patterns for the first seamstress and Carrie Regal joined the design team for her expertise in the art of embroidery.

You are holding in your hands a bear that is meant to help all children understand that when a person dies their soul, the real person we are inside, immediately leaves the body. This leaves an “empty container”.  This empty body/container will begin to fall apart because it has nothing living inside it. Out of respect for each person we must bury that body, or put it in a machine that turns it into ashes and put that in a special box or jar where we can either keep them there, or spread the ashes out over a beautiful place.


How to Use Soul Bear™

The purpose of the Soul Bear™

• To help children understand death and dying issues of life, burial and cremation.

• Facilitate the grieving process for the child who has suffered the death of a special person.

Who should use Soul Bear?

• Educators

• Sunday School Teachers

• Clergy

• Therapist

• School Counselors

• Mortuary Staff

• Hospice and Home health staff

• Parents, grandparents, guardians, family members

Soul Bear TM- Limited Edition
$100.00 (plus tax and S&H)
Handsigned by creators Susan K. Beeney and John Handy

Soul BearTM -Regular Edition
$24.95 (plus tax and S&H)