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When Living in Grief, ‘Keep Walking’

Posted on February 20, 2011 - by Shirley Wiles-Dickinson

Within two weeks after my sister’s death, I knew, as did my husband, that I was not in a good place. I felt like I was walking around the edge of a big black hole. One missed step and I would fall into that hole.  My husband gently suggested I go see my doctor. I heeded his advice and saw my doctor the very next day. She put me on an anti-depressant and set up my first appointment with a therapist. On my first visit, the therapist and I talked about my sister’s death, the tragic way in which she […]

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Open to hope

I miss you Kenny

Posted on February 19, 2011 - by admin

My son Kenny died at 26 on this pass Thanksgiving Day 2010. Although he was a quadriplegic after being shot in November 2009, he was still here; at times he would smile, tell jokes and crack up laughing. I am so angry at the person who shot him, and never being caught, the nursing homes for not taking better care of him and myself for finding away to bring him home. After surviving being shot multiple time, we continue to pray to God for Mercy and Grace and a miracle. Why? But, I am so glad he gave his life […]

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Deaths of Husbands Bond Two Young Widows

Posted on February 19, 2011 - by Catherine Tidd

“A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.” –Unknown My friend’s husband recently passed away after a long battle with cancer.  But as we all know…it doesn’t matter how long you’ve “known”…it’s always a shock when that moment comes. We were always meant to be friends, and I think we were always meant to have a place in each other’s lives.  Our friendship is unusual because in the two years we’ve known each other, I’ve never once met her husband.  He had been sick the entire time I’ve […]

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Open to hope

My Beautiful angel is at rest

Posted on February 18, 2011 - by admin

Well i dont know where to start,My beautiful daughter was only 25 she commited suicide on the 1st dec 2010.She had spoke about it over the last few years on and off but on the night before she lay down with me and told me what her plans were,i didnt want to belive so off to work i went,after a couple of hours i had to leave as i just felt sick,i got home and i found her,i will never ever forget that day,it has been 80 days today and my god im struggling.I dont know what else to say […]

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Winter is Widow’s Season of Grief

Posted on February 18, 2011 - by Kim Meredith

Every person’s grief has a season. Mine happens to be winter, and therefore it includes Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, this annual holiday of love and romance will always remind me of the darkest chapter of my life. As a child, I would get very excited at the beginning of February as I prepared my Valentines for our class party. First, I went to the local drug store with my mother and selected the perfect box of assorted small cardboard Valentines. Each one had its own thin white envelope on which I carefully printed a classmate’s name. Displaying my assortment on a […]

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The Unique Nature of Sibling Loss

Posted on February 18, 2011 - by Tabitha Jayne

I can still remember the call that told me my younger brother was dead. It was from my grandmother. Funnily enough, I’d been contemplating that my grandparents were getting old and that I needed to prepare myself for their deaths. I never expected that I would receive a call from them to tell me that my brother had crashed his car into a lamp post on the way home from a concert and was killed immediately. He was 17; I was 22. The death of a sibling is strange. Everyone asks how your parents are, but everyone seems to forget […]

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Breathless

Posted on February 18, 2011 - by admin

Breathless A new day comes, and all I think about are the days gone by, the days that were once filled with your beautiful presence I am breathless Inhaling pain, exhaling sorrow. When the sun goes down it falls heavily on my heart, making for yet another sleepless night, full of anxiety and fear I dim the lights, but I can never put them out I am breathless Inhaling devastation, exhaling acute sadness My dreams are filled of you, so many images, memories, delusions and anticipatory returns of your beautiful self One, breath, less, is how my life feels without […]

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Tunnel of Torment

Posted on February 17, 2011 - by admin

Since you left I have found myself in what can only be described as a pure tunnel of torment. Sorrow has become my soul mate. Pain a new companion. Fear my unpredictable friend. As for grief, I’m not sure what to make of it this very minute. It’s a menace, the imaginary gun to my head. Life and living is compromised. My brain is up to its old tricks. I search for your face on every street and scan the crowds. A record of you exists. I have it on repeat. It plays on my mind. The body surely speaks, […]

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How to Listen to Someone Who’s Grieving

Posted on February 17, 2011 - by Harriet Hodgson

We had just gone to bed when the phone rang. The call was from a member of the ambulance team. She called to tell us our daughter had been injured in a car crash. “It’s really bad,” she concluded. I can still hear her words in my mind and, painful as they were, they helped me prepare for what was to come. After more than 20 hours of surgery, the lead surgeon told us our daughter was brain-dead. Traumatizing as the news was, discontinuing life support and signing documents for organ donation were just as traumatizing. My husband and I […]

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sudden death

Posted on February 16, 2011 - by admin

I am writting hoping to get some help 4 month ago my son passed away suddenly at 29 years of age the dr had over prescibed his methodone i am having days when I cry as though I have been cut in half and not sleeping feeling like I dont want to be here anymore people say you have 2 other children but this doesnt ease ones grieve as I dont even know how to help them let alone myself some days I work work work until I drop then break down again all over I just cant except he […]

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