Meet Lauren Briggs

Lauren's compassion for comforting those in crisis began with the deaths of her two younger brothers, the first coming when she was just seven years old. After marriage, Lauren's grandmother lived with the family in her last days and Lauren has been there through the cancer battles with several friends. She is also on the steering committee and serves as treasurer of the local chapter of The Compassionate Friends. From this depth of experience comes Lauren's book The Art of Helping -- What to Say and Do when Someone is Hurting (Life Journey, 2003).

Her message is one of awareness for what people need when they are going through difficult times and how you can meet some of those needs and be a part of the healing process.

Throughout her years of parenting, Lauren has maintained her interest in business. She has a home-based company doing bookkeeping, graphic design and business management consulting for a select group of clients. She is a licensed Realtor and specializes in the real estate needs of returning missionaries. Lauren's professional interests are featured in the chapter on turning your talents, hobbies and interests into an enterprise in her sister Marita Littauer's book You've Got What It Takes. Now that her children are older, Lauren also helps in her husband's retail business, Collector Galleries.

Lauren holds a degree in psychology. As the daughter of nationally known speaker and author Florence Littauer, she comes by her speaking and writing talents naturally.

Lauren and her family are active in both church and community choral groups including the annual Feast of Lights and have performed in the community productions of "The Music Man", "Fiddler on the Roof" and "My Fair Lady". Each of their children is musically gifted. Randy, Jr., is a professional saxophone player in The Aquabats, a "parent friendly" rock band, Jonathan graduated from UCLA in 2005 majoring in music, and Bryan attended Chapman University where he majored in vocal performance. Lauren's husband Randy is a numismatist, philatelist and deals in exonumia. He is the President and CEO of the Collector Galleries, a seventy year old business specializing in coins, stamps and investments. The Briggs family resides in Redlands, CA.