on the 1st Feb this year my mum was at home gardening on a week off from work, a solid brick wall from an out building just fell on her and crushed her to death, my dad came home from work and found her, she had been there around 4hours we think, there is an inquest. i dont think i am grieving, think i am atill in shock, just cant beleive it, i am 23 and mum was only 51, anyone out there who can talk? thanks
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Helping hurting employees can be complicated, challenging, and confusing, especially when the employee’s needs and reactions change from one day to the next. Grieving people are often unsure what they want from others, which complicates things further. Just as there is no rulebook as to the length and pattern of grief, there is no right way to respond, no checklist of solutions to provide needed assistance. It is important to remember that grief is not a cloak someone can take off when they walk out the door. It accompanies a person wherever he or she goes, which by necessity includes […]
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Hands down, the strongest, most destructive part of grief is regret. That ever-present feeling that you could have done more. Regret can become so strong that everything else about life gets tossed aside. It is exactly what happened to me. The night before I lost my 17-year old son, Michael, in an auto accident, he had come over from his mother’s house to get something from my house. He was outside in the driveway playing basketball with my oldest son, Ronald. I looked down from the window upstairs and watched them for a few minutes. He didn’t see me. I […]
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When we experience significant loss, every aspect of our humanness responds in agony. As the initial physical effects dissipate, they leave in their wake an accumulation of emotional and spiritual responses to the loss. Some of these responses begin to appear only over time, often long after the needed support offered by loved ones and professionals has been removed. Even though the effects of spiritual distress take a tremendous toll, resources for healing spiritual pain are not readily available. In this article, I will examine the effects of loss on the human spirit, and explore means for promoting healing and […]
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As most of us know, there are certain things that trigger our emotions while on this journey of grief. I think it’s safe to say that we all understand there are different stages of grief, different emotions and feelings also. Many people experience anger while grieving. Anger at the deceased, anger at God, anger at the situation, just plain anger. After my sister was murdered, just under 18 months ago, I experienced anger. I still experience it. I was angry that it happened to my sister. I was angry at God, and I still have a few questions for him. […]
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My fourth grade year concluded with long shadows cast over it. The class was all elbows and knees. Among my classmates were “the twins”, Bobby and Ricky – the source of fascination. 2 people who seemed to be versions of the other was mysterious to us all. Then, one morning in February, the principle arrived and prompted us to notice that the twins were not present. The twins, home alone, were playing with a family gun and one had accidentally shot and killed the other. He announced that children should never play with guns. And then he left. Our teacher […]
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Have you noticed the attention the media give to public figures suffering through terminal illness and grief? Most recently, activist Sargent Shriver and attorney Elizabeth Edwards have been in the news. And before them, there were celebrities Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. As these public figures faced the paparazzi, they became role models as they witnessed to us their personal struggles with deteriorating health. In return, we have all been touched on a deep and cellular level. For some of us, it became a topic of conversation at the water cooler, in our car pool or at the dinner table. […]
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Death always seems to come to soon or when we don’t expect it. No matter how long someone has lived or how they’ve died, it is impossible to fully prepare for the moment and the days that follow. Our relationships don’t end with death. We are always connected. Death changes the way in which we can communicate, but our feelings, thoughts, memories and experiences live on. We can say goodbye to a loved one, as we knew them, but we don’t have to say goodbye forever. We can choose to say “hello” to them, as the days pass, how we […]
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A few years back, we had a forest fire here in the Sawtooth Mountains. The first evening, we collectively came out and stood on hillsides to watch in horror and awe as the flames engulfed the woods and the pristine scenery, never dreaming it would overpower the town in the days to come. It seemed incomprehensible. As the days went on, a multitude of states were called in to assist, tents were set up, meals prepared. For weeks, acres of trees burned up and down the mountainsides, closing in on our historic town. Finally, people were asked to take their important […]
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Please join us for our Compassionate Friends regional conference March 25 & 26 in Frankfort, Kentucky. “Words of Wisdom, Hearts of Love” This conference is for any one touched by the death of a child. Exec. Dir., of The Compassionate Friends, Pat Loder wil be joining us as well as past President of the Board, Pat Malone. Artist, Alan Pedersen and author Mitch Carmody. We have workshops for those have experienced a death of a child in the line of duty of a police officer, soldier or firefighter, survivors of suicide, For Women Only, Creative Arts, Impact of child loss […]
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Open to Hope is an online community offering inspirational stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.
