Grief Digest Articles

by Nan Zastrow Valentine’s Day can be a painful reminder of everything missing. It’s not only the person. It’s the memories, the affection, and the experiences you once enjoyed with a loved one. Our society revolves around young love, mature love and everything in between as long as there are two.  Valentine’s Day is wrapped up in commercialization equal to other pricy holidays.  Flowers, a box of chocolates, gifts and dinner for two has become the standard to d …

3 Easy Intentions for Bouncing Back by Nan Zastrow “ I love it when they drop the ball in Times Square. It’s a nice reminder of what I did all last year.” Bouncing back after significant loss is not only daunting but often shatters one’s self-confidence. I wanted to prove to myself that my grief was not going to control me and force me to surrender just because  certain tasks were tedious and the work was hard. Since my husband’s death, I began to question …

By Heather Hattie-Mae Mahaney Addiction did not arrive in my life like a storm. It crept in quietly, rearranging priorities, softening boundaries, asking for patience it would never return. At first, the person I loved was still there—laughing, working, showing up late but showing up. And then, slowly, almost imperceptibly, they began to dissolve. They walked away from the things that once defined them. Family gatherings were skipped. Friends stopped hearing back. Hobbies and intere …

By Amaal Zaki  You see it in small, ordinary moments. The neighbour pauses mid-step while watering their garden, a sudden tear tracing down their cheek. In the office, a coworker avoids the break room, staring at the floor when someone tries to make conversation. A friend who once called every day now takes weeks to reply, if at all. A parent wipes away tears in the middle of the supermarket, juggling groceries with shaking hands. In a cafe, a stranger flinches at the sound of a child laugh …

By Emilie Clothier Harting My father pulled me toward him as we sat in the back seat of his brother’s car, “Mommy is in the hospital,” he said. He stopped talking for a moment and then said very slowly, “I’m afraid she is not coming back. The doctors told me they did everything they could to save her, but they couldn’t.” Then, perhaps as a contemplative afterthought, “She died cleaning your wool clothes. The basin of Renuzit exploded. I wanted to g …