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Introduction: Innocence

Posted on June 28, 2013 - by Tarah Hipple

Maybe it’s peculiar that I don’t feel ashamed. My beauties are noticeable, but I’m proud of them. Some have called me crazy and maybe always will, but I won’t hide from that label. If I’m crazy then is that pretty little girl, as innocent as it’s possible to be, crazy because she had “normal” ripped away? Any chance of living what some would call a normal life was shot away. Innocence was stolen from me and guilt shoved itself down my throat when my heart skipped a beat and I gasped for air. But maybe the air wasn’t poisonous after […]

Getting Through Special Occasions

Posted on June 23, 2013 - by Donna Miesbach

I will never forget how difficult it was to get through all the special occasions after my husband died. There were just so many “firsts,” whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, new babies being born, and Memorial Day. Whatever the occasion was, it was hard. What I learned from that was you just have to do what you need to do to get yourself through it. For example, it had been our Memorial Day tradition to drive 50 miles to the cemetery where my husband’s family graves were. We did that every single year, rain or shine, but on that first Memorial […]

Writing Poetry to Cope

Posted on June 22, 2013 - by Karin Miller

This summer is going to be a doozy: Our eldest daughter is about to climb behind the wheel of our family van. Yikes. Stop the clock already. I wish we could go back in time, start off a bit more slowly, savor all those delicious growing-up moments, even delay taking those training wheels off her bike a bit longer. How has time flashed by so quickly? Of course, this also means that my husband’s next anniversary of successful cancer treatment will be his sixteenth. Thank God. And thank chemo. At the time of his diagnosis, I was four months pregnant; […]

Painful Memories can be a Bridge to Recovery

Posted on June 20, 2013 - by Harriet Hodgson

Life has its ups and downs. After a loved one dies it’s normal to feel down and depressed, but you may also be plagued by painful memories. You wish these memories would go away and leave you alone, yet they keep coming back. What can you do with painful memories? I asked myself this question after four family memers died in 2007. When I reviewed my experiences with each of these people, painful memories came to mind, and I decided to learn from them. First, I let the memories come. Clearly, my subconscious mind was processing information and I let […]

My Words to Live By: I Am Open

Posted on June 18, 2013 - by Laurel D. Rund

I recently spent some time with a special friend and she told me how she came to name her upcoming book (which I hope to feature in a future blog). What follows is my reaction to the story of her experience. At a New Year’s Day service, which is a time of beginnings, my friend participated in a “White Stone Ceremony.” During the ceremony, each person was given a white stone and participated in a meditation which lead them into receiving a word that encouraged their spirit to celebrate a new beginning. My friend was asked to hold her stone, […]

Love is Stronger than Death: The Power of Story

Posted on June 17, 2013 - by Nan Zastrow

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge – That myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts – That hope always triumps over experience – That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death. Robert Fulghum One warm summer day, the neighborhood children asked if they could explore the forest behind our house. When they didn’t return in about a half hour, my husband, Gary, got concerned and went to look for them. He located them by the sound […]

A Bike Ride With My Father: His Father’s Day Gift to Me

Posted on June 16, 2013 - by David Roberts

Bicycle bicycle bicycle I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride it where I like From the Song: Bicycle Race, by Queen “I Have A Thought” At 9:00 am today (6/15/13), I received a text message from my dear friend from Long Island, Patty Furino. In addition to being one of my closest friends, Patty is one of my most influential spiritual mentors and witnesses on the journey I have embraced following the death of my 18-year-old […]

A Father’s Day Perspective

Posted on June 16, 2013 - by Sandy Fox

by Sandy Fox Happy Father’s Day to all fathers. Today is your day, and I hope you celebrate it with loved ones. Many fathers react differently to this day depending on where they are in their lives, especially a bereaved father. One bereaved father wrote this poem: As this day approaches, I wonder how I will react. Am I still a father? I will sit quietly never allowing family and friends to see how I feel. I will miss my son, but I can’t allow myself to “break.” I must remain strong and always be the “rock.” I wish I […]

Father’s Day Eve…

Posted on June 15, 2013 - by Eric Tomei

Ok, so obviously this isn’t a real holiday, but it is to me. This made up holiday, is the day before my toughest day of the year, Father’s Day. It is the one day of the year where I feel really different from everybody else, and only a few people in my life can truly understand what I am really going through. They say, through time that the loss gets easier which is true to a point. You never forget it though. A little part of you wants to celebrate what everybody else does, but […]

The Shadow of My Father

Posted on June 15, 2013 - by David Roberts

The following article was originally published by The Grief Toolbox (www.thegrieftoolbox.com) on November 21,2012. I received a strong nudge to repost this article about my father on this site on Father’s Day weekend. My dad was only a part of my life for five years, but he has taught me more in death than he ever did in life. His gift to me to me and my mother was letting go, so that we could live a fulfilled life without him. I believe that my father was aware of his limitations, and that his decision to leave was the ultimate act of […]