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Room For Change: Changing Walls within Loss

Posted on May 3, 2011 - by Susan Reynolds

Walls are dividers.  Walls are providers.  Walls are low. Walls are high.  Walls are protectors. Walls are prisons. Walls with cracks fall down and can be rebuilt or replaced with something else. Moving through many changes after loss (the major one being the death of my spouse), I have moved my literal walls. In fact, I have moved three times within the last 6 years.  I have constructed walls from blue prints; I have adorned and painted them.  I have purchased a new home only to sell it 2 years later and rent after 30 years of owning my own […]

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Yes, another Mother’s Day….

Posted on May 2, 2011 - by admin

Mothers Day – 2011 There is no word in English to describe that parent who has lost a child. There is no such word in any language. I can only assume that is because it is the unthinkable. It is against nature, against all that should be. And yet it happens. It has happened to me twice. Both our son and our daughter died in their 20’s as a result of having Cystic Fibrosis. It is over thirteen years since the tragic death of our son. It will soon be eight years from that heartbreaking day when the wretched disease […]

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Mother’s Day as a Bereaved Mom

Posted on May 2, 2011 - by admin

For a while I wondered if winter would ever leave, though the calendar said it had. However, the gorgeous weather of this past week is proof that spring has unmistakably arrived. The sights and sounds outside my window do not lie. The neighborhood children have shed their winter coats and I hear their gleeful laughter as they play in the cul-de-sac. The robin sings a chorus from a branch on Nina’s flowering tree that is beginning to bloom as it has every May for the past seven years. Soon the air will be filled with an overwhelming fragrance so intoxicating […]

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Writing Songs for Husband Helped Widow Heal

Posted on May 2, 2011 - by Paula Ezop

When my husband died, I felt a burning desire, a heartfelt need, to tell the world about the love that we shared.  I wanted everyone to know how I felt, and how our love would last forever and ever. I decided that I was going to write a song about the love that I held deep in my heart.  My love song would be a memorial to the man that I walked through life and death with. I’m not a musician nor am I a songwriter.  But, I was a writer who needed to express herself.  So, I researched the […]

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Remembering Buddy

Posted on May 2, 2011 - by admin

Five years ago, I lost my 2 1/2 year old son Daniel Jr., in a drowning accident. Five years later, though the pain is not as intense, I still feel the emptiness from his absence. He never got to grow up and everytime my older daughter gets to a milestone, I know, it will be the last time we get to celebrate the event. However, my good memories of him are clearer now and sometimes images of something he did will come forward bringing a smile. Though he was only here for a short time, his little footprints have forever […]

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Sudden Death vs. Anticipated Loss: Two Different Journeys

Posted on May 1, 2011 - by Chris Mulligan

Experience: The stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge Having experienced grief previously, I assumed I would be able to move on through life after the death of my mother in November 2010. I thought myself well prepared since I had spent the last ten years creating my new life after my son passed from injuries he sustained in an automobile accident. While caring for my mother, I convinced myself that becoming knowledgeable about Alzheimer’s disease, its progress, symptoms and behaviors would arm me with the necessities to flow through […]

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Connecting to Nature: Sacred Lessons Learned

Posted on April 30, 2011 - by Jane Simington

“Mom, can you come today? I want to show you the little river Wes and I found yesterday. It’s full of minnows. It’s in that marshy place where they cut down those old trees.” There were indeed minnows in his new-found stream. I returned, on numerous occasions, to ponder their existence; I returned to recall the precious moments we had shared; I returned to caress his foot’s imprint in the muddy-bog; I returned, praying that nature would preserve it – never taking it from me. One of the most difficult things to come to terms with was my need to […]

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Woman Embraces Role as Caregiver to Those with Cancer

Posted on April 29, 2011 - by Sharon Roth-Lichtenfeld

I have been surrounded by cancer all of my life. One of my earliest memories was in 1967.  I was just 6 1/2 years old. My Aunt Natalie had died from breast cancer at the young age of 43. To this day, I can still recall that rainy July day. I remember being confused, scared, and fearful when my mom told me the news. In those days, the “C’ word was never spoken out loud. It was discussed only by the adults and always behind closed doors.  Neither of my parents ever explained how or why my aunt had died.  […]

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Widow Struggles to Open Her Heart Again

Posted on April 28, 2011 - by Christine Thiele

The sixth anniversary of my husband’s death is right around the corner. I’m wondering tonight about open hearts. Open hearts are soft, ready to be shaped by love. They are ready for moments of joy, ready to let go of pain.  I have an open heart.  My only problem is that my heart is only open from time to time – it is no longer open regularly. There have been moments throughout the six years that have passed when I have felt ready.  I feel ready to open my heart and ponder the possibility of someone else to love.  Fleeting […]

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my Sonshine taked away….

Posted on April 27, 2011 - by admin

On Jan,16,2007 my Mom passed away from lung cancer(6 mths after diagnoses), Than tragically my 22 yr old Son passed away on Sept.07.2009, than 2 mnths later my 43 cousin passed(suicide), than just this past November 26,2010 my only brother passed away(apparent suicide,suspicious death).I am more than beside myself…the only thing that is keeping me alive is My 19 yr old Son, he is the sun shine of my Life and one would think that would be enough to move forward. I feel guilty about the way I have been coping and would think that I would smarten up and […]

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