My dad died during my senior year of high school, at a time when I was supposed to be worrying about college applications and finishing calc homework. Instead, I was waking up to a quieter house, watching my mom sit at the dining table with a stack of papers that somehow never got smaller. Every envelope seemed to hold another decision: cancel this, verify that, notify someone else. Agencies, banks, insurance, benefits—rules no one warns you about until you're already hurting.
Grief is strange. It steals your energy, your focus, your sense of time… and somehow still asks you to stay organized. I remember standing behind my mom while she was on hold with yet another office, listening to that looping music while she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She wasn't just sad; she was tired in a way I didn't know adults could be.
That feeling—watching someone you love try to be strong when they're barely holding it together—never really leaves your body.
I'm Ethan. I'm a university student now, but Harbor Aftercare didn't come from a class or a startup idea. It came from that table, from those afternoons, from wishing my mom had something—anything—that could've put a little structure back into her life when everything else had fallen apart.
I didn't build Harbor to make money. I'm not selling anything. There's no subscription, no paywall waiting at the end. Harbor is free because grief already costs enough. It's free because my mom deserved something gentle and clear, and so do you.
Harbor Aftercare is my attempt to hand someone else the thing I wish we had:
- •a calm list when your mind is foggy,
- •a sense of what's urgent and what can wait,
- •a reminder that you're not failing just because you're overwhelmed.
If you've found your way here, I'm sorry for whatever brought you. I mean that honestly. I hope Harbor helps—maybe not in some big dramatic way, but in the quiet, steady way that gets you through one more task, one more day.
And if it does help, even a little, then that's enough for me.
Ethan Huang
Founder, Harbor Aftercare
University student at UC Davis · Building tools to help families navigate loss with dignity