Wombie

How do you move forward after half of you is gone?

This is the question Kelsey Ellis faced when, a few days after their 29th birthday, she took her twin sister Audrey to the hospital, where Audrey lost her life in the early, uncertain days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They had called each other "Wombie" since childhood, short for womb-mate. "After losing Audrey," Kelsey says, "I feel like a part of myself died with her."

What Kelsey found in her grief was how alone it left her. "Grief is such an isolating human experience," she says. "You're kind of expected to push your grief away.”

The closest she comes to feeling whole again is in the ocean, where she closes her eyes and talks to Audrey, and feels, for a moment, like her sister is giving her a big hug.

Out of that longing, Kelsey built Waves of Grief, a community that gathers at the water's edge to hold loss together rather than apart.

“Grief is love with nowhere to go,” Kelsey says. Wombie follows where that love leads.

More of Audrey’s Imprint:

Project Credits

  • A film by: Aayas D. Joshi

  • Featuring: Kelsey Ellis

  • Appearances by: Scott Ellis, Janine Ellis, Alex Kohut, Alex Greenwald, Kacey Dodd, Kianna Miller, Victor Barajas

  • Special Thanks To: Amelie Fawson, Nithya Indlamuri, Nicole Borman, Myah Griffin

Kelsey's dog, Ollie, was originally meant to be Audrey's. Audrey had put herself on a waitlist, and after she passed, the breeder contacted Kelsey, who saw it as a sign. Ollie has been one of her biggest emotional supports throughout her grief. "I know she sent Ollie to take care of me,” Kelsey says.

Photographs from Audrey’s Celebration of Life ceremony.

After Audrey's death, Kelsey found a card Audrey had written her during a difficult time, signed "Love you Wombie." Kelsey had it tattooed on her wrist in Audrey's handwriting.

Kelsey surfs with four volunteers who help facilitate Waves of Grief sessions. This is the community she has built, the people who help her carry forward her mission of making grief feel less isolating for those who need it most.

“Grief is just love with nowhere to go”

– Kelsey Ellis

“If there is a will, there is a wave”

– Audrey Ellis

Kelsey and her husband, Alex Kohut, watch videos of her and Audrey as toddlers. Though Kelsey and Alex married in 2023, three years after Audrey's death, Kelsey chose Audrey as her maid of honor.

Kelsey and her mother, Janine Ellis, sit with Kelsey in Audrey's old room. Janine reflects on how the space brings her so much joy yet makes her want to cry. "You can feel the joy that Audrey brought to those around her," she says

Kelsey looks at framed scans of Audrey's journal entries. "I've never met anyone that journaled like Audrey," she says. "She was always romanticizing life, and everything she wrote was like poetry."

Audrey always wanted to be a healer. She was in nursing school when she died. Now it's Kelsey who helps others heal, carrying forward the calling Audrey left behind. "If Audrey is watching, I hope she is proud of me," she says.