CBS
Four-time Survivor player Parvati Shallow has just revealed that her younger brother, Kaelan, died at the age of 26. She wrote an Instagram tribute to him and her fellow castaways were quick to offer condolences and prayers.
Kaelan struggled with addiction and in his honor, Parvati has started a series of Instagram videos where she talks about “addiction, recovery, and how to return to wholeness over and over again.”
Kaelan Died In November
According to Kaelan’s obituary, he was born August 25, 1994, and died on November 11, 2020, making him just 26 years old. He is survived by his parents, Gale and Michael, and his sisters, Parvati and Sodashi. It also reads:
Kaelan was a vivacious, joyful child – full of life’s energy and a mischievous playful spirit. Kaelan carried that spirit with him throughout his life.
He loved his friends, cooking & sharing good food, animals, and seemed most at home hiking in the woods, climbing mountains, camping, and spending time in nature.
Kaelan had a keen intellect, a wonderful sense of humor, and a deeply honest way of seeing and being in the world.
He cared deeply about the people he knew and loved and who befriended him along his journey through life. He gave the best hugs.
Kaelan was a talented musician. He could hear a song on the radio, pick up the guitar, and play the song. Over the years he played a variety of instruments including guitar, ukulele, banjolini, mandolin, upright bass, and keyboard. He had a love of the unique and unusual. He enriched our lives every time he shared the new bands and songs he loved along with his own musical creations.
The obituary also does not shy away from talking about his struggles. It says that Kaelan “had a long and difficult struggle with addiction which he attempted to overcome many times. His trials, battles, and hardships opened our eyes to his incredible depth of feeling and the compassion required to support other individuals and their loved ones who are impacted by this disease.”
Parvati Wants to Talk About Addiction in Kaelan’s Honor
In her post where she talked about losing her brother, Parvati wrote, “I’m grateful for my pain, my mistakes, my past and my darkness. All of those times gave me wisdom, faith and courage. And gave me an experience of my own resilience — my true humanity. I’m here and I’m a human. A human being — My heart is broken for the loss of this incredible human. My brother Kaelan. I’m hosting a series of live conversations called ‘Celebrating This Life’ in his honor.”
The post shows a video of her brother playing a song on his guitar for Parvati’s baby daughter, plus a photo of the three Shallow siblings.
In the comments, Ethan Zohn, Andrea Boehlke, and more of the Survivor family were quick to offer their love and support, and in the Instagram video with Niki Myers called “Celebrating This Life: Escape the Matrix,” Shallow and Myers talk about Kaelan’s struggle with addiction and how hard it has been for Parvati to “move through this experience” and process her grief, plus how hard the pandemic has been on everyone, but especially people who struggle with addiction.
“It is a vulnerable conversation to have and have other people watching and witnessing, but I do think there’s something important to be shared,” said Parvati, adding, “I think this is so relevant right now too because ever since the pandemic began … all the distractions, all the things that I used to use to mask the empty parts of me … a lot of those coping strategies that we used to have that helped take the edge off … a lot of them have just been taken away, so I think a lot of people, myself included, have had those moments of intense loneliness or isolation or feeling that kind of discomfort inside of our skin and it’s harder to get those little things [that help]. A lot of people are checking out.”
READ NEXT: Remembering ‘Survivor’s’ Cliff Robinson on What Would Have Been His 54th Birthday