Baptist to expand grief services to Midtown Memphis and Jonesboro

Three grief centers are available within a 75-mile radius

MEMPHIS, Tenn., - Baptist Memorial Health Care announced today it will be opening two new grief centers; one in midtown Memphis and the other in Jonesboro, Ark., where Baptist has one of its 17 hospitals, NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital. 

Baptist opened the area’s first grief center, the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief, in 2005. The midtown location, the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief, Milla’s House, will open this summer on the grounds of Idlewild Presbyterian Church. Baptist also spearheaded the area’s first grief camp for children, Camp Good Grief, in 1999.

The NEA Center will open in October at 1717 Executive Square and will offer free grief counseling and seminars to those in need.

The model of care at both grief centers will mirror the services and programs available at Baptist’s original Grief Center, which, according to Baptist leadership, has grown exponentially under the leadership of executive director of bereavement Angela Hamblen Kelly.

The Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief, Milla’s House, is named in memory of Milla Gieselmann, the 6-year-old daughter of Memphis couple Frazer and Dana Gieselmann. In November 2016, Milla died from Batten disease, an inherited neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no cure.

The Gieselmanns’ 5-year-old daughter, Elle, also tested positive for Batten disease, while 8-year-old Ann Carlyle tested negative and is healthy. The Gieselmanns have relied heavily on the Grief Center, and Milla’s father, Frazer Gieselmann, says the Center continues to be essential to their family's journey through a grief that is complicated and messy. He emphasized that the Center had not only been essential to his family, but to his extended family and close friends, as well.

Dana Gieselmann, Frazer’s wife and mother of Milla, Elle and Ann Carlyle, said, “The Memphis community has benefitted greatly from the Center for Good Grief, and it is our great pleasure to have the opportunity to support the opening of the midtown location, while also honoring our daughter Milla. Her short life of six years touched so many. Our hope is that Milla's House will provide the help our community needs to deal with the reality of living in a broken world.”

For more information about the grief programs available at Baptist, please visit www.baptistonline.org.