Best-selling author, award-winning blogger and former agency MD Benjamin Brooks-Dutton was 33 when his life was forever altered over the course of just a few short hours. In November 2012 Ben and his wife Desreen were walking home with their 2-year-old son, Jackson, when a car careened out of control and hit Desreen on the pavement, narrowly missing Ben and Jackson, and leaving Ben a widower and single father.
Reeling from the sudden loss and struggling to communicate that loss to his infant son, Ben looked to the internet for support, seeking other young, windowed fathers who could understand his situation and ease his sense of isolation, but found nothing. He started his blog, Life as a Widower, two months after the accident to document his experience with loss and challenge the conventions and clichés of grief, particularly among men, so often told to ‘stay strong’ and hide their feelings. The post received 5,000 hits in two days, as well as scores of comments from those with similar experiences, who seemed to have been waiting for a space to tell their stories.
Following a cover story for The Guardian and subsequent media storm around the accident, Ben was commissioned to write his book It’s Not Raining, Daddy, It’s Happy, which documents the shock of the loss, and the challenge of raising a son who has lost his mother before even developing a concept of death, as well as the poignant moments of hope and joy along the way.
Ben harnesses his first-hand understanding of heartbreak, grief, and survival, as well as his experience as a single father to an autistic child, to articulate a series of perspective-changing insights with characteristic honesty and humour. His talks focus on topics including:
- Navigating grief and life-changing experiences
- How organisations can support employees who have experienced loss
- Challenging perceptions of male grief
- Diversity and neurodivergence
- Loss and resilience
Ben now provides agency and brand consultancy, specialising in commercially driven growth strategies and wide-ranging copy and content writing projects aligned to business strategy. He is also an ambassador for Grief Encounter.
