Grief Digest Articles

For privacy, I’ll call her My New Friend.We met in a grief-counseling session.It’s not been a year since I lost my mother. So when I received another letter from the Hospice team that helped me through the-most-overwhelming-year-of-my-life, I decided to show up to the support group they recommended. I thought, if nothing else, I’ll get a story out of it.“One of the worst times is around six months after your loss,” the counselor said. “That’s when people stop asking how you’re doing and you’re l …

I’m sitting at my dining room table and out the window I see rays of sunshine streaming through trees. I sense you among these rays, and I miss you. Golden sunlight illuminates this bright green forest I live in and the leaves change colors before my eyes, as this Autumn season settles in with certainty. The forest has begun its ecstatic transformation. Orange, red, yellow.You, my father, transitioned from this life three weeks ago this morning on September 27, 2014 at 6:25 am. You are this gold …

Since 1958, I have been writing stories that I have encountered and impacted my life. This, however, is the very last one that I shall write for no other story could even compare. It is not only the most powerful and heart wrenching… but surreal, thought provoking and true.WE ALL HAVE TO DIE, BUT IT IS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT THAT NOBODY KNOWS. Without saying, it is tragic for the ones that die, but harder for the ones left behind. I could have stayed in bed the rest of my life when my daughter Ba …

* Photo by Cheri ThomasRecently, I was asked to say a “few words” to other bereaved parents. My first thought was how does one say a few words when someone loses a child?There are either “no words”, because words can’t truly describe the pain. Or, there are “not enough words” as one grasps the many words and metaphors it would take to try to describe it. And, then only end up feeling words were still inadequate! In preparing to share these “ few words”, I wrote and scratched it out, and wrote an …

“I think we should leave,” I whispered to my husband through clenched teeth as my 2-year-old daughter, Hailey, wailed in my arms.We were at my cousin Ryan’s house for his daughter’s birthday party and Hailey was having a typical overtired toddler meltdown. Tears started to well up in my eyes, but not because of my daughter’s less than ideal behavior. As I surveyed the room, I could see my aunt smiling and laughing with her granddaughter and Ryan’s wife’s mom was right beside them, doting on the …