I wasn’t quite prepared for how this news would land.

A couple of years ago, I sat with Sean and our daughters watching the film about her life, and we’d been lucky enough to catch a screening of the 9 to 5 musical together too, which was every bit as joyful and foot-tapping as you’d hope. So when the news came through on Tuesday evening that Dolly Parton had died on 25th August 2026, at the age of 80, after a brief battle with cancer, it hit me in a way I hadn’t expected. I felt a proper lump in my throat. And then I felt slightly silly for it. I’ve never met her. I’ve never sat across from her, never heard her laugh in person, never had a single conversation with her. So why did it feel a little like losing someone I knew?

If you’ve felt that way this week too, I want you to know you’re not being daft. There’s something very real about mourning someone who’s been part of the background of your whole life.

The strange, tender grief of losing someone you never knew

Here’s the thing about people like Dolly. Even though we never met her, she’s been woven through decades of our lives. Her songs played at weddings, funerals, and long car journeys. Her voice came through the radio on ordinary days when we were doing the washing up. She was there in the films we watched, in the quotes shared on tough days, in that instantly recognisable laugh, and at the sight of a rhinestone.

So when someone like that goes, it isn’t really the person we’re grieving. It’s the thread of them running through our own story. It’s the memories they’re stitched into. It’s a little marker of time gone by, and a quiet reminder that the soundtrack of our lives is always shifting.

Grief like this can catch you completely off guard, and that’s okay. You’re allowed to feel it. You’re allowed to have a little cry over a woman in rhinestones you never met. Feelings don’t need permission slips or logical explanations. If your heart’s a bit tender this week, be gentle with it.

What Dolly can teach us about wellness

The lovely thing is, Dolly’s left us with far more than songs. She’s left us a whole way of living that’s genuinely good for the soul. And, even in the songs themselves, there’s real wellness woven in.

Think about 9 to 5, that rallying cry for anyone who’s ever felt overlooked or undervalued. Or Coat of Many Colours, a song about finding joy and dignity in what you have, even when it isn’t much. Both of them sit on my feel-good playlist, and if they’re not on yours yet, I’d nudge you to add them.

I wanted to share a few of her lessons, because there’s real wisdom tucked inside them.

Know who you are, and own it.

One of her most quoted lines is: “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” Not “find out who other people want you to be.” Not “wait until you feel ready.” Just work out what’s true for you, and then live it, boldly and without apology.

So much of our stress comes from trying to squeeze ourselves into shapes that don’t fit. We wear the version of ourselves we think we should be, and then wonder why we feel so tired. Dolly gave us permission to drop all that. Your real self, quirks and all, is the one worth showing up as.

Laugh at yourself and don’t take it all so seriously

“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” she used to say, with that twinkle in her eye. She knew exactly who she was, and she found herself funny. That lightness is a genuine wellness tool. When you can laugh at yourself, you loosen the grip of perfectionism. You stop bracing against every little judgement. You give yourself room to breathe.

Try not to save your joy for special occasions. Sprinkle it about. A silly moment here, a proper belly laugh there.

When the road’s rough, start paving a new one

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” This one is for anyone feeling stuck right now. Dolly grew up in a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children, in a family she described as dirt poor. She could easily have decided that was that. Instead, she picked up her guitar and started building a different life, brick by brick.

You have that same power. Maybe not to change everything overnight, but to lay down one small new stepping stone this week. A different habit. A kinder thought. A tiny step towards the life you’d rather be living.

Believe in yourself before anyone else does

Dolly believed her dreams would come true long before she had any proof. “I always wanted to be a star,” she said. “It just seemed natural to me.” That kind of quiet, steady self-belief is a form of self-care. It’s choosing to be on your own side, even when things feel uncertain, and nobody else has noticed your potential yet.

Be your own biggest cheerleader. Speak kindly to yourself.

Choose kindness and acceptance.

“We are all God’s children,” she once said. “We are who we are, and we should be allowed to be who we are.” Dolly loved widely and refused to judge. She stood up for people who were often pushed to the edges, and she did it with warmth.

There’s real wellbeing in that too. When we let go of judgement, of others and of ourselves, we soften. We carry less. We make more room for connection, which is one of the most nourishing things there is.

A legacy built on giving

If you want to see what Dolly truly valued, look at where she put her energy. Her father couldn’t read or write, and she spoke openly about how much that held him back. So she built something extraordinary in his honour: the Imagination Library.

Since 1995, that programme has gifted more than 332 million books to children, free of charge, posted straight to their homes in the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada and Australia. Children from birth to age five receive a specially chosen book each month, regardless of their family’s income. As she put it, “The seeds of these dreams are often found in books.”

Isn’t that a beautiful way to be remembered? Not for the awards, though there were plenty, but for planting hope in millions of small hands.

Living her legacy

If you’d like to honour Dolly this week, books feel like the most natural place to start.

Gather a few well-loved titles from your shelves and pass them on to a local school, library or charity shop. It’s the simplest, most grounded way to keep her spirit moving through the world.

And giving does something quietly wonderful for our wellness too. That warm glow you feel when a book lands in someone else’s hands is your nervous system thanking you. Generosity nourishes the giver just as much as the receiver, and there’s something especially fitting about letting stories be the thing that connects us all right now, travelling from one pair of hands to the next, just as Dolly always intended.

Your one simple step this week

Just this: choose one Dolly lesson that spoke to you and live it out in a small way this week. Maybe you show up a little more as yourself. Maybe you laugh at a mistake instead of going over it for the hundredth time. Maybe you gather a few books and pass them on.

One small act. One living thread of her legacy. That’s enough.

She showed us that wellness isn’t only green smoothies and early nights. It’s knowing who you are, laughing freely, getting back up, and giving a little of yourself along the way: simple things, all of them. But woven together, they make a life worth living, and a legacy worth carrying forward.

Rest easy, Dolly. And thank you.

Cheering you on to wellness success,
Katie x