Jason and I were friends for eighteen years. A friendship built over countless brunches......eggs and coffee, yes, but so much more than that. Listening. Joking. Showing up. Being heard. We were each other's committed listeners. We even had a name for it. Our man date.
We didn't always get it right. It wasn't perfect. And in the end, it wasn't enough.
He died by suicide in January 2025.
I've lived with suicide my whole life. My sister left twenty-three years before Jason did. In the end, neither of them had a room available to them. And even when a room exists, the table isn't always set with what someone actually needs.
That's what we're building.
Jason and I both had mental health struggles. I found a way through. He didn't. I will miss him the rest of my life. But I'm through the grieving piece now, and the numbers aren't going down......more people are depressed and isolated than ever. So this is me doing something about it. Getting the conversation going. Making sure men know there are places to go. Giving men the tools to actually have the discussion......not just hand a struggling guy a beer and hope for the best.
What kept Jason from asking for support wasn't the absence of people who cared. It was shame. The weight of looking like you've got it together when you don't. The stigma that still tells men that needing support is weakness. The brunch is a room where that gets set down at the door. No judgment. No performance. Just men being honest with each other.
This isn't a replacement for therapy or counselling. It's the conversation that makes it possible to get there. Part of what we do is connect men with the resources and support that already exist in their community......whatever the challenge is. The goal isn't to have all the answers. It's to make it easier to reach for the ones that are already out there.
This isn't about me. It's about finding like-minded men in every city who want to set up their own recurring monthly brunch......and giving them the tools and ongoing support to keep it going. Across Canada, there is room in existing community funding and grants to support this kind of work. We want to make that happen. One city, one room at a time.