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By Adversity Our Hearts Are Made Better: How Loss May Strengthen Us

Posted on April 29, 2016 - by Rabbi Daniel A. Roberts

It was so ironic that as I was flying home on a wonderful United Airlines flight at some 300 mph from the ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling) conference, I was reading David McCullough’s book, The Wright Brothers. It is ironic because the conference had a lot to do about sharing the best of the recent bereavement theories and about hope being a powerful tool. As I sat on the plane reading this book, I remembered someone at the conference mentioning that one deals with falling seven times by getting up for an eighth time. The story of the […]

Seasons of Remembering: Spring Brings Needed Change

Posted on April 28, 2016 - by Jill Smoot

It is amazing how tangible things can evoke some memory tucked away in the secret chambers of our thoughts. Like the changing of the seasons, like Spring. Trees that just yesterday were leafless and barren, now burst with leaf and bud. And within the intricate xylem tissue, water and minerals are transported from the roots to all the other parts, quietly, exactly on time, exactly in season. How comforting, that no matter what, come what may, life will go on. The trees, the seasons, are testifying to this fact. We welcome the changes. And how do we do this? By […]

Susan Rice: Helping Others After Loss

Posted on April 27, 2016 - by Gloria Horsley

Dr. Gloria Horsley talks with Susan Rice, fellow RN, at the National Alliance for Grieving Children conference. Rice works at a center that serves people facing a loss, the Douglas Center for Hope and Healing in Nevada. Rice also works with her daughter, Jodi Wass, similar to Dr. Horlsey. She lost her son, Joshua, three years ago when he was only 37. When grief hits home, it’s entirely different than working with it on a professional level. It can lead to career burnout and plenty of surprises. Stopping and taking a deep breath is key. There are stages of grief […]

When Lupines Bloom, I Think of Him

Posted on April 25, 2016 - by Elaine Mansfield

My husband Vic and I planted many pounds of wildflower seeds in our fields over the years. Wild grasses devoured some of them, but the lupines thrived and self-seeded on broad hillsides. On the day of Vic’s death in June 2008, lupines bloomed with wild abandon, erupting from the earth with thousands of tall purple spikes. In 2009, after my first long year of grieving, the lupines sent up flower stalks again. They pushed their way through my numb despair. Life goes on, they insisted. Open your eyes. There is joy here. Wanting to share the beauty, I invited my […]

Sibling Loss Changes a Sister Left Behind

Posted on April 25, 2016 - by Heidi Horsley

“Every loss is unique. The truth is, the worst loss is the one that is happening to you, the one that has picked you up and thrown you down and left you struggling to put your life back together.” — (Devita-Raeburn, 2004, p. 184) When I was 20 years old, I was awakened in the middle of the night to the terrible news that my 17 year old brother Scott and cousin Matthew, had been killed together in a car accident. It seemed inconceivable that my brother had died. My brother, who I had grown up with, shared a history […]

Friends and Death

Posted on April 23, 2016 - by Alan Pedersen

The Executive Director of The Compassionate Friends, Alan Pedersen, joins the Grief Relief show with Dr. Gloria Horsley. Dr. Darcie Sims joins the show to talk about how you lose and gain friends when you lose a loved one. Pedersen travels the world, sharing stories about his healing process from losing his daughter. He’s also a performer, and is featured in this episode singing “A Little Further Down the Road.” Dr. Sims also travels to share stories about her loss, as part of the Angels of the USA Program. Your relationships with friends change over time anyway, and they can […]

You Are Never Lost: Surviving Multiple Losses

Posted on April 22, 2016 - by Donna Miesbach

A little over twenty years ago, my life changed dramatically. I lost my husband, my father, and my mother in less than seven years. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had entered a very intense school. The lessons were the hardest I’ve ever had to work through. Many times I thought I was lost. I wasn’t lost, but that’s how I felt. I was really struggling. I wanted to go back to how it was, but we can’t go back. We have to learn to accept what we cannot change. Acceptance allows us to use our pain […]

Returning to the Land of Loss: ‘Enfranchising’ our Grief

Posted on April 21, 2016 - by Lisa Irish

My cousin died last year, at least that’s how it felt for me. She actually died seven years ago, so my delayed sojourn into Loss has been very private…very lonely. Let me explain. I grew up in California and made family trips to Seattle to see my three cousins: Sarah, Susan and Sally. I am without siblings, so these three were very special in my little girl years. Adult life took us all over the country, I landed on the east coast. My contact with them changed as our lives changed, but periodic calls and visits always mattered to me. […]

Inspirational poem about puzzles by author Laurel D. Rund

A Terrible Saturday Morning

Posted on April 19, 2016 - by Larry Patten

“I feel like I’m getting close to the gates,” he muttered. He was 91. I knew he was referring to death, to the “Pearly Gates” where Gabriel the angel (or Saint Peter or St. Someone) famously waited with a list of names. And he knew I was there to discuss some of the last decisions he’d make as he faced his final days. As I explained hospice’s benefits to him in a hospital room, I wouldn’t have guessed how close he was to those “gates.” In his nineties, he looked seventy and griped like a teen just told he couldn’t […]

The Quest for Closure

Posted on April 16, 2016 - by Julie Lange

I often hear people speak about finding closure after a major life trauma or loss. When a loved one dies or a relationship ends, we say we are seeking closure. We long for relief from the voices in our heads telling us that we should have done more or loved better. We may hope for absolution for our own bad behavior, or crave vindication for the lousy way we’ve been treated. We tell ourselves that when we find closure we will finally be done grieving and able to move on. The popular wisdom says that grief typically happens in […]