On April 16, 2009, Kim Hamer watched her 44-yr-old husband take his last breath. During his illness and after his death, she was amazed by the helpful ways their coworkers, bosses, friends, and family supported them. Kim started calling their kind actions "acts of love".
After the death of her husband, Kim, an HR leader, noticed how little guidance leaders received when navigating cancer, health crisis, or death on their team. She knew their lack of knowledge negatively affected morale, employee engagement, and productivity. She set out to change that. Combining her personal experience with her professional knowledge and leadership skills, Kim launched her business to support leaders and coworkers when cancer (or any health crisis) affects a team member.
Kim Hamer is the author of 100 Acts of Love: A Girlfriend's Guide to Loving Your Friend through Cancer or Loss, an easy-to-read book filled with 100 practical, quick, and effective ways to support a friend or coworker. She’s also an HR leader and speaker who lives in Los Angeles where she tries not to bother her relatively well-behaved college-aged children.
"I'm here because of the hundreds of acts of love that people did for us," Hamer says. "I'm here because every single time, because all these people showed up in our doorstep with lasagna to the point where my kids were like, Mom, no more lasagna."
"I'm here Because people picked up my kids after school and said, We're not bringing him home till nine o'clock. We're gonna take him to dinner in a movie. I'm here because my husband's college basketball. Teammates came, and the coach drove, flew cross country to spend 24 hours with him in a hotel room. He was so sick at this point. He died like three weeks afterwards. That's why I'm here, and I'm here because I want people to know everything that they do really matters. And it doesn't have to be the big stuff, right? It's the card I got with $10 in it from an anonymous person who've been reading my blog and who said, I don't know what to do for you."
That's just a sample of what you'll hear from Kim Hamer as she shares with us what she believes are some perfect ways to help Your friend with cancer and ways that they can get the support they need.
Joining me in this episode is legal thriller author & attorney Mark M. Bello, host of the Justice Counts podcast. This episode will also stream on that show.
Listen to the episode: