Grief Digest Articles

The Uncharted Journey of Child LossOn January 4, 1997 Carolyn and I lost our 17-year-old son, Andy, in a car accident. Two weeks later, one of the first suggestions taken from a child-loss bereavement group was that I journal my thoughts and feelings as a way to deal with my grief, thus capturing both behaviors and thinking as they were happening, effectively cutting through the fog of memory loss caused by Andy’s death. I have consistently journaled my thoughts ever since Andy’s loss, together …

Matt, I swear if one more person tells me that “I know just how you feel” or “God needed another angel” or that your death was “meant to be,” I won’t be responsible for my bad behavior.Letters for Grace: One Mother’s JourneyWe’ve all been there: stunned by one of life’s seemingly unfair and unpredictable twists and turns . . . in that place where we simply have no words – to comfort, to understand, to heal, or to just make it all go away. Those are the times I’ve discovered I need to take a deep …

When someone dies, do we really ever say “goodbye?” You hear it all the time: They said their final goodbyes. Come up to the casket, Honey, and say goodbye to Grandpa. People attended the funeral, paid their final respect, and said goodbye to a good friend.What does “goodbye” really mean? Do we actually mean, “I will never see you again?” or does it mean, “I am now removing this person from my life” or perhaps, “So long for now until I see you again”? For some people it may mean saying good-bye …

By Linda Campanella It’s shortly after sunrise and I am sitting on the deck of my cabin in the Berkshires waiting for a visit from my hummingbird. I yearn to hear the unmistakable vibration of her wings flapping as she hovers nearby.Six months after becoming a motherless daughter in September 2009, I was alone in this same spot and, for the first time, allowing myself to indulge my immense, intense sadness. As I sat staring at the lake, alone with my grief in a location where I especially missed …

The weather is shifting in Joshua Tree. The once winter-barren trees are full of beautiful green leaves, and the rose bushes are laden with beauty and aromatic flowers-- and – I made it through my fourth Mother’s Day without my son.People who are not currently in grief may not understand the hills and valleys of the process. One day you’re navigating the process, as we will for our lifetime, and you may even find a reason to laugh, smile, dance – and like being caught naked, your utter sorrow co …