Grief Digest Articles

One Thursday in December (2000), Jonah, my then three year old grandson, and I were hanging out in what was then the Thompson Park Mall in Kamloops. We were refugees from the toxic fumes of a bath tub being re coated. What a time of year to do it! It was freezing cold outside and stinky and cold inside due to having windows open etc. Jonah has bad allergies and grandma wasn't doing so well either! So off to the mall we went, pushing Jonah in his stroller, braving the shoppers and crowded aisles …

The little girl curled up in her mother’s arms. Her mother lay weak and frail in a bed of rumpled sheets, blankets and pillows. Her breath was becoming strained and it was growing more and more difficult to speak. Sometimes her thinking betrayed her and her thoughts would drift to a half wake place where she had already gone to heaven. When she was there she saw her own mother and her father and her tired body wasn’t hurting anymore. It was a peaceful place. The idea of dying had become less fri …

I think about you all the time. I often call your name. I know I couldn't save you, but I still feel I'm to blame. No matter what I try to do, I cannot ease the pain. People say that it will take some time, but things will never be the same. The guilt I felt, the tears I cried, the day I watched you pass, I know if you were here right now you would probably kick my ass. But as I lay awake at night, and think what could I do, it also makes me realize how much I'm just like you. You always were my …

Kids didn't grow up so fast. We always learned from the past. And love would always last.I wish; every Friday that came and went Were followed Saturday by a special event. Sunday nights wouldn't feel as bleak. And Monday's blues didn't start the week.I wish; life was fair. God granted every victim's prayers. And bullies got what was theirs.I wish: Underdogs would always win. We knew now what we didn't then. And all mistakes were not a sin.I wish; Spring's promise lasted all year. …

Every Christmas my husband Roy is gifted with several new jigsaw puzzles. He has an annual competition with his sister in law to see who will be the first to complete the identical puzzles they receive from her daughter, who seems to delight in the complexity of the puzzles she chooses.One year the puzzle took a long time to put together. Some large areas were very grey and muted, tone on tone with some splashes of brighter colours. For some reason the colouration of this picture got me thin …