Dominic
MURGIDO
Dominic Murgido
Dominic Murgido earned multiple degrees in criminal justice with concentrations in psychology, sociology, law-enforcement, and education. He instructed college courses as an adjunct professor and became a master coffee roaster after an entrepreneurial experience. He retired from careers in retail loss prevention and social services.
Dominic founded a bereavement support group, sudSSpirit, a few years after the sudden unexpected death of his wife. He publishes a quarterly newsletter of the same name that is available on this website.
Besides being a grief advocate who provides support and solace to those who are grieving, He is also an advocate for safe driving by providing awareness and a voice to legislators to increase education and training for safe driving practices as well as penalties as they relate to traffic violations that cause injury and death.
Dominic is an author, commentator, editor, speaker and writer.
He is available to speak at events, conferences, luncheons, churches, community-based programs, hospices, and corporations. Dominic is also available for interviews, podcasts, and virtual presentations as well as book signings and meet the author events.
Interests
Founder
Dominic is the founder of sudSSpirit, a bereavement support group for the sudden unexpected death of a spouse or significant other that meets in person regularly. sudSSpirit is an acronym for sudden, unexpected death of a Spouse Survivors in participation to inform, renew, improve, and triumph.
The group is also open to those that lost a spouse, partner, engaged, living together but not married who have lost the love of their life through a disease or terminal illness.
The Back Story: For the first two and a half years after my wife, Sue, died I was either in some general grief support group or with a therapist just trying to get by from the devastation of losing my soulmate when a distracted driver killed her while running a red light. My wife, Sue, just turned 48 years old three days before.
After talking with those that also had lost their spouses, it became clear to me that I should find a grief support group for those that lost a spouse or partner. None existed at that time, so I decided to create one and sudSSpirit was born in 2008 and the rest is history.
For more information about sudSSpirit, click below or on the sudSSpirit tab at the top of this page.
Accomplished Author
Dominic has written 3 books based on life experiences with his personal grief journey. He continues to write grief related, self-help, encouraging, and inspiring articles for other publications and his own quarterly newsletter that is available for FREE right here on this website.
Dominic is now working on his first fiction book.
The Back Story: Writing a book was never in my radar but through the years of facilitating sudSSpirit Grief Support Group and writing a quarterly newsletter, many attendees had asked where they could find all the reflections that I have written about in the newsletters.
There really wasn’t one place to find them all so in 2018 I began to pull all of them that were written up to that point and put them in one place. Two years later, Miss Your Forever was published in 2020.
The popularity of that book along with an established grief timeline led me to write my second book, In a Heartbeat, (a memoir) in 2022 that detailed my grief journey over a thirteen-year period.
Looking back at those two published works, I decided to summarize the best of both of them with Life Changes While Grieving in 2024.
Each book has its own feel but if you haven’t had the opportunity to read any of them, I’d suggest Life Changes While Grieving first. It gives you the best of the first two books.
All 3 books were published by Christian Faith Publishing. For more information about each book, click below or on the Author tab at the top of this page.
Master Coffee Roaster
Dominic is the founder and master coffee roaster of It’s All About The Bean, a very small online adventure that he enjoys as a hobby of sorts.
The Back Story: I love coffee but never thought that I would learn to roast my own coffee and in a commercial way. Five years after my wife died, I needed to make a change. So, I took a risk and made a choice to leave my comfort zone. I left a thirty-year career and relocated to another state to open a coffee shop and become an entrepreneur.
Along with that came the ambition to buy a coffee roaster and learn to roast my own coffee beans.
My pursuit of a brick & mortar coffee shop didn’t make it but my love for roasting coffee stayed. I continue to roast coffee from my home to this day and sell single origin and my own signature custom blend coffee online that I make exclusively for you in my small batch coffee roaster.
For more information about It’s All About The Bean and the coffee I offer for sale, click below or on the coffee roasting tab at the top of this page.
I am also available for speaking engagements concerning the origin of coffee and the coffee roasting process to groups, clubs, and organizations.
Events
sudSSpirit monthly meeting, Tuesday April 22, 2025 at 6 PM at the Exeter Community Library.
We are very grateful for the continued support of the Exeter Community Library for providing us with a safe place to help others during their time of need. Together We Can Help Each Other Heal.
Save the date – March 28 and 29 Alvernia University Francis Hall Theatre
Grief is complicated and hard to understand. But is such a clear and poignant feeling. Grief is tied to so many different brain functions – from recalling memories to maintaining a steady heartbeat. What is the neurobiology of grief? How does your body experience grief?
March 28th and 29th Alvernia University Francis Hall Theatre
Tickets: 23: The Aftermath of Gun Violence – JCWK Dance Lab
23: The Aftermath of Gun Violence
A powerful interdisciplinary project. The evening-length performance blends original music, contemporary dance, visual art, and community narratives to explore the profound impact of grief on the body and spirit.
The event will feature a gallery exhibition and The Grief Project, a 50-minute immersive performance by JCWK Dance Lab. Inspired by Shaykayarira Delrio-Gonzalez’s story and others who have experienced profound loss, this performance blends contemporary dance, original music, visual art, and storytelling to complement the themes of the evening
Led by Project Director and choreographer Jessica Warchal-King, the event incorporates research from Alvernia University scholars, insights from grief specialist Dominic Murgido, and stories gathered by Laurie Grobman, Penn State Berks and Berks4Peace. The performances, scheduled for March 28-29, 2025, at Alvernia University’s Francis Hall Theatre, will be followed by discussions with the artists and collaborators, with community resources available to audience members.
Gallery exhibition opens at 7pm. The Grief Project begins at 8pm. A talkback with community leaders and the artists will follow the performance.
Event Partners and Sponsors include: RIZE, JCWK Dance Lab, Berks4Peace, Alvernia University. Reading Musical Foundation, Reading Theater Project.
SAVE THE DATE: MAY 3rd, 2025 11AM TO 3 PM :
May Day Metaphysical Market @ the Pottsville Free Public Library. I will be participating in this event as an Author vendor among many other interesting vendors including a food vendor for lunch. Come join us. Stop by and say Hello!
Please check out the following videos under the sudSSpirit tab:
Grief Awareness Day is on August 30th each year and was founded in 2014 by Angie Cartwright, public speaker and activist on grief awareness. Available here under the sudSSpirit tab in Resources is a link that takes you to an article written by Pam Washington, Certified Grief Educator, and was posted by BCTV in 2022. It also contains a video explanation by Angie Cartwright as well as additional information to grief resources and websites that may be helpful to you.
BCTV (Berks Community Television) with Circle of Life Coalition. March 21, 2019. An interview with Dominic Murgido about sudSSpirit Bereavement Support Group. Available here under the sudSSpirit tab in Resources.
Circle of Life Coalition Presents: “Letters to Heaven”. 2021. A Presentaion by Dominic Murgido explaining the concept that he wrote about in a reflection that later became a part in his book, Miss Your Forever. Available here under the sudSSpirit tab in Resources.
The Circle of Life Coalition Presents: “Resilience and Learning to Live with Grief” Successful author and devoted CoLC Advisory Board member Dominic Murgido will define resilience in grief, utilizing personal experiences from his own grief journey. He will also discuss the value of taking risks, making choices, and self-reflection; while healing one day at a time. Available here under the sudSSpirit tab in Resources.
“Awaken Your Souls Journey: Living Life after Loss” An interview with Dominic Murgido by Angela Clement. Available here under the sudSSpirit tab in Resources.
BCTV (Berks Community Television) Limited 4 part series, FOUND, hosted by Pam Washington, Certified Grief Educator and Dominic Murgido, Author / Founder of sudSSpirit. The inspiration for the show was the challenge to educate others about grief. The four episodes offer information for those who are grieving and for those who want to support someone who is grieving. The show is a platform for conversations about grief. Available here under the sudSSpirit tab in Resources.
“Conscious Grief Series 5: Transforming Pain into Evolution and Growth” An interview with Dominic Murgido by Tara Nash. Available here under the sudSSpirit tab in Resources.
Please Note:
Dominic is available to speak at events, conferences, luncheons, churches, community-based programs, hospices, and corporations. He is also available for interviews, podcasts, virtual presentations as well as book signings and meet the author events.
Dominic is also available for speaking engagements concerning the interesting origin of coffee, fun facts and statistics about coffee, and the coffee roasting process to groups, clubs, organizations, and events.