He and my mom never married, but they were together for 35 years, and he was a welcome sober soul at boozy family gatherings. At one point, he had to stop drinking to save his liver, and for a while, he went to meetings. We had sobriety in common until he started to drink socially …
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust She looked interesting. Unconventional in dress, not afraid of dirty garden hands as she worked the soil of her urban terrain. She propped plants on imaginative metal sculptures. Her pure white hair was …
There are a multitude of reasons why people suppress their grief. At the time of death, we don’t have the skills to process complex emotions, we lack healthy role models for grieving, or we see ourselves as the strong one in the family, so we’re stoic. We may have an acute or chronic medical illness …
Part of human existence, and having the ability to reason, is seeking answers to the question, Why? As a child, when we become aware of our surroundings and start to learn the way of things, we begin to ask why questions. We are curious, we want to know how things work, why they are the …
When my dad passed away I had no idea what to do with that level of grief and sadness. I had never experienced anything like that before. Although I had experienced the death of grandparents and a cousin, I had never lost anyone that close to me. My heart hurt. My dad wasn’t just a …
My oldest son Aaron died of a heroin overdose in May, 2007. He was 33 years old and had battled addiction for almost 20 years. After he died, I was encouraged by friends and family members to attend a grief group specifically for parents whose children had died. But, I was not ready to attend …
That night–fall of my senior year–was a Saturday night, so I headed to a party. A bonfire tucked in the woods off Hwy. 55, where we could drink underage to excess. I had a bottle of Seagram’s in my jacket along with a liter of Seven Up. Didn’t take long before I was smashed. I …
“Life is growth in the art of loss.”- John O’Donohue I live forward and backward. In, then out of the present moment. Time unbound. The past is present and the present is lost. The future is behind a veil through which I cannot see. My sister died. My youngest sister. Too soon and too fast. …
In the past few days, since news was shared that a beloved friend is dying, several people have come to me to ask what they can do. This friend is such an exquisite human; it is no surprise that so many people want to help and that there has been such a beautiful outpouring of …
