We all grieve differently. It can be hard to identify or define the emotions we go through, making grief somewhat unpredictable.

But we do know that grief is a journey, changing the people who walk down its path. Here are some people who took an inspiring turn down their path of grief and turned the pain and sorrow from their loss into something positive.

Lexi Behrndt

Lexi lost her six-month-old son from complications of a heart defect. At first, Lexi tried to mask her pain and go about her life’s normal routine, but after a year, she realized that wouldn’t work. She needed to confront her loss.

So she took her pain and experience and turned it into the blog, Scribbles and Crumbs. The blog chronicles the experience of her life and her loss of a young child.

In an article for Today, Lexi describes how the blog helped her face her loss head-on. She wanted to help others do the same, so she created On Coming Alive, a site that shares similar stories of loss and helps people talk about grief. To read more about Lexi’s story, click here.

Esther Hyman

When Esther Hyman lost her sister Miriam to a suicide bombing in London in 2005, her first reaction was anger. But she felt that her hatred and anger weren’t productive, and instead decided to direct her feelings of grief into something positive.

Working with the University College London’s Institute for Education, Esther created resources to help schools in England teach students to reject hate and extremism. Her family also set up an eyecare assistance program in India in her sister’s honor. To read more about Esther’s story, click here.

Rosie Swale-Pope

In 2002, Rosie lost her husband to prostate cancer. She wanted to do something that would take her mind off the grief, so she decided to run. But Rosie didn’t set out on an ordinary run — she ran across the world raising money and awareness for prostate cancer.

Her journey took her from her small home in Tenby, Wales, to Europe and then all the way through Russia and on to Alaska, Canada, and Greenland before finally taking a ferry back home to Wales. Along the way, Rosie would sleep in a cart that she pulled alongside her back. To read more of Rosie’s amazing story, click here.

McBride Family

Sometimes, grief can even hit a little closer to home. That was the case with New York Funeral Director Michael McBride. The family was featured in a New York State Funeral Directors Association article about how they dealt with the loss of their young daughter.

The family established the Katie McBride Foundation in her honor. In the article, it stated that the project “helps him [Michael McBride] channel grief towards positive action … while keeping her memory alive.”

The foundation holds a run each year that helps raise thousands of dollars for various causes, the biggest of them being the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island. To read more about the McBride Family and their story, click here.

Do you have stories of families who turned grief into positive action? Share with us in the comments below!