JOHNSTON COUNTY -- Mary Grossi could not muster the courage to fix breakfast after her husband died two years ago.

Breakfast had been a special occasion for her family. On weekends, her husband, Ron, was the breakfast chef, making omelets, pancakes, French toast, bacon — whatever the family wanted. Nothing, not even cancer, could keep him from the kitchen.

“The last week he was alive, he needed a walker to hold him up,” Grossi recalled. “It was Easter Sunday, and he wanted to make his big breakfast for us, but he couldn’t figure out how to do it, so I held the walker. He told me exactly what to do, how to flip it and everything. When we got everything on the plates, he said to me, ‘Haven’t lost it yet, have I?’”

Two weeks ago, Grossi finally decided to cook herself a breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage with a bagel. She realized that although her husband of 39 years was no longer sitting across the table, he was still with her in spirit.

“My husband was my biggest supporter, and I decided I haven’t lost that,” said Grossi, who makes her home in Clayton. “That is inside of me. If I want to do anything, I can still tap into that.”

A Johnston Memorial Hospital class, “Downsize Dining,” has helped Grossi and many others change their lives after the loss of a loved one. The next free class will begin June 9 at HealthQuest. It will meet from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. Mondays through July 14.

Participants in the class learn how to cook healthy meals in smaller sizes. Class members are broken into groups and asked to prepare an entire meal. Participants divide the tasks, from chopping the vegetables to mixing the batter for dessert, and cook the food together. Along the way, participants work out their grief through journal writing, making memorials and talking about their loved one to the group.

“Grieving folks find it challenging to have an appetite,” said the Rev. Jeanell Cox, director of spiritual care for JMH’s hospice program. “When we think about comfort foods, they tend to be things that aren’t going to give us the wellness we need. Grieving is exhausting. It is spiritually exhausting, emotionally exhausting and mentally exhausting. To get through it, your body needs more fuel.”

When she came to the JMH class, Ruby Simmons could barely talk about her 81-year-old mother, Clara Simmons. It had been one year since Clara died, but the memories were still fresh for Simmons. Looking at the dishes her mother used or sitting in her mother’s recliner put Simmons on the verge of tears.

“I thought I had done quite well until I was asked to speak about my loss,” said Simmons, whose mother lived with her in Selma. “I just flooded with tears. I started crying and could not stop. By the fourth or fifth week, I knew I had accepted my mother’s death, because I could talk about her without crying.”

Instructors taught Simmons how to read food and ingredient labels for fat, sugar and sodium. She learned how to use spices and herbs instead of salt to give food more flavor. The tips were particularly important for Simmons and Grossi, because both have some health problems.

Simmons was plagued by feelings of guilt after her mother died. Her mother’s insurance policy paid bills that had brought Simmons to the brink of bankruptcy. Participants in the class made Simmons realize that her mother was just trying to take care of her, even in death.

“I found the feelings I had, someone else had,” she said. “You were left with questions of ‘Did I do enough? Did I not do too much? Should I have done this?’ and other people were saying the same thing. It was good to be surrounded by people who were having the same feelings.”

To sign up for the class, call 938-7560 before June 2.