Grief Digest Articles

3 Ways to Survive Grief During the HolidaysBy Maryann Manelski, survivingloss.orgThe days are dark now here in the northern hemisphere. For those of us grieving lost loved ones, the coming gray of winter is often a better match for our feelings than the gatherings and gifts that mark the holiday season. The experience of loss during the holidays can bring a new kind of lonely upon us.However, in just a few weeks, this new pain will lighten. It is certain as the sunrise that there will be a day c …

I knew the holidays were coming but I didn’t want to deal with them and I really didn’t want to put up any of the holiday decorations. Well-meaning family and friends kept telling me that I needed to “get into the spirit” of the holidays. I agreed that I would at least get the boxes out of storage and go through them. I soon realized that each box held memories of past holidays and celebrations. At times, I was overwhelmed with the feelings that I experienced as I opened the boxes that held my p …

Grief is so very difficult, and grief that refuses to be recognized, is the hardest to deal and cope with. The other day I noticed that one of my classmates was visibly upset. I watched as she would occasionally get up and leave our class, always with tears brimming in her eyes. Each time this occurred something would tug at my heart.Here was a young woman in pain, her grief so deep so profound. Here was a mother who had lost not one but two children, in such a short time. What was even more dif …

A friend had offered me a variety of perennial plants she was removing from her meticulous garden, and I greedily accepted, because I know that perennial plants bloom under adverse conditions in most any environment. Many of the varieties were new to me and I struggled with identifying them by their Latin names (which she knew very well) compared to the common names I knew. Additionally, I was mentally storing information about their preferred habitat: shade or sun. Laden with buckets of wilting …

After my two eldest children, 21-year-old Denis and 19-year-old Peggy, were killed in an automobile accident, I didn’t have a clue how I could keep their memories alive. As I was sorting through their possessions and personal effects quite soon after their deaths, I realized that I did not want them forgotten from people’s memories.While I was throwing away their student I.D. cards, drivers’ licenses, library cards, social security cards, credit cards, and the like, I had the terrible gut feelin …