Coralease Ruff

Dr. Coralease Ruff is a Bereavement Facilitator, A Registered Nurse, a University Professor and an International Nursing Consultant. She and her husband became bereaved parents in 1997, following the death of their 21-year old daughter in an automobile accident in the Dominican Republic. Since then, she has been involved in the Compassionate Friends Inc. in many roles. Coralease is a frequent presenter on grief topics locally and nationally including The Compassionate Friends (TCF) National Conferences, the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association and The Society of Childhood Emergencies as well as local universities, churches and community centers. She has held faculty positions at Catholic University, University of Washington, The Catholic University and is currently Professor Emeritus at Howard University. She is an end of life nursing educator and developed and currently teaches a university course on Grief and Loss to graduate and undergraduate nursing students. She has published widely in professional nursing literature and the lay press. Her grief articles include Grieving through the Years; When the Nurse is Grieving and Finding Help and Hope in the Aftermath of the Virginia Tech Tragedy. She combined a biography of her daughter with a grief handbook entitled; Her Light Still Shines which is published by iUniverse and will be available in bookstores soon. Dr. Coralease Ruff appeared on the radio show “Healing the Grieving Heart” with Dr. Gloria & Dr. Heidi Horsley to discuss, Grief and Your Health: Taking Care of Yourself. To hear this interview, click on the following link: www.voiceamericapd.com/health/010157/horsley072706.mp3 Dr. Coralease Ruff appeared on the radio show “Healing the Grieving Heart” with Dr. Gloria & Dr. Heidi Horsley to discuss, Coping with the Sudden Death of a Child in a Foreign Country. To hear this interview, go to the following link: https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/39289/coping-with-sudden-death-of-a-child-in-a-foreign-country https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tte1iuiR6cQ

Articles:

Taking Care of Your Health While Grieving

The Executive Director of The Compassionate Friends, Alan Pederson, joins the president of the Open to Hope Foundation, Dr. Gloria Horsley, to discuss the importance of health while in the […]

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Grieving in the New Year

he New Year is a perfect time to plan for self-care and work on personal grief. I readily admit that making a commitment to deal with grief is a big […]

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Fifteen Commandments for Surviving the Death of Your Child

In ancient Hebrew Scriptures, Yahweh gave 10 Commandments to Moses, following the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt. First recorded in the book of Exodus, these Commandments are moral statutes […]

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Finding Peace in Your Breath this Holiday Season

Like many of you, I miss my loved one this holiday season and like many others of you, I am still missing my child, my 21-year-old daughter. When we are […]

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When Canceling a Holiday is Not an Option

Holidays and other special days are times that we miss our loved ones more acutely.  It is these family gatherings where everyone is joyful that make the void feel more […]

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From Pain to Ache to ‘New Me’: Healing From the Loss of a Child

Never in my wildest nightmare could I have imagined that my child, my only daughter, would die. Nor could I imagine living through it. The unthinkable did happen! My 21-year […]

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Why Do We Grieve Over a Celebrity’s Death?

By Coralease Ruff — We react so strongly to the death of public figures like Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Princess Diana, whom we do not know personally, primarily because […]

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Contributing Writer Ruff Publishes Book About Daughter

Coralease Cox Ruff, a contributing writer for Open to Hope, has written a new book about her daughter, who died at the age of 21. A bereaved mother and grief […]

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Strategies for Surviving Holidays and Special Days

By Coralease Ruff — Many of us can exhale now that Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa and other winter holidays have come and gone. Some have survived their first big holiday season since the […]

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