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We Are Extraordinary Parents

Posted on January 5, 2026 - by Larry Carlat

I’ve always found it strange that there’s no word for a parent who loses a child. Why do widows, widowers, and orphans get to have all the fun? I think it’s time for someone to right this wrong. Bear with me for a moment as I reaffirm what you already know: children aren’t supposed to die before their parents. That’s just not the way life should work. We give birth to children or adopt them, we love and nurture them, we raise them, they grow up, we grow old, and then we die. The circle of life, sunrise, sunset, […]

Memories and Messages. Merry Christmas from the Other Side

Posted on January 3, 2026 - by Veronica Crawford

Christmas had always been a special time for me. The anticipation of Christmas day – decorating the tree and house, buying presents, beautiful food and spending time with family. But over time, Christmas has lost its sparkle. While I still appreciate the day with people I love – it no longer holds the same energy as years before. The excitement has been replaced more with a time for reflection and a longing for times gone by. Grief has woven her darkness through the tapestry of life with my brother Carl’s passing after a car accident, precious pets transitioning, and long-term […]

The Ash Rose Grief, Art, and Love that Transforms

Posted on December 25, 2025 - by ianmccartor

In our culture, grief is often something we are expected to move through quietly and efficiently. After the funeral, after the condolences fade, families are handed the ashes of someone they love and then left largely on their own to figure out what healing looks like. There is an unspoken expectation of “closure,” as if love ends where a life does. But what if grief is not something to close, but something to continue? I came to this question through two worlds that have shaped my life – hospice nursing and the arts. As a hospice nurse, I have sat […]

Mourners Pass

Posted on December 23, 2025 - by Perry Grosser

It is the holiday season, and in those first year or two, the pain of not having my son home for the holidays was overwhelming. What hurt most was his absence—no longer buying him his eight Chanukah gifts, not watching him light his menorah alongside his sister’s, and alongside the family menorah that my wife and I light together. Going to my in-laws’ home on Christmas was just as difficult, seeing gifts under the tree for everyone except him. Simply knowing he was not there was emotionally draining for us, year after year. Over the years, this particular pain has eased little […]

The Soul Knows When It’s Time to Go

Posted on December 20, 2025 - by Larry Carlat

Trying to make sense of suicide is a fool’s errand, and I’ve been that fool ever since my son Rob died. Losing any relative to suicide is traumatic, but it’s particularly devastating for parents, who feel like a failure in the most important job of their lives. I tortured myself for the better part of two years, asking the same questions over and over again—is there anything we could’ve done to prevent Rob from doing what he did? In the days and weeks after his death, the answer seemed obvious: yes! For God’s sake, I was with him […]

Love Isn’t Enough

Posted on December 15, 2025 - by Larry Carlat

Thanks mainly to the Beatles, I always thought that love was all you need. Love was the answer, I knew that for sure. As I’ve said many times and will continue to say, I’ve never loved anyone the way I loved my older son Rob and I never will. I’m sure you feel the same way about your child. That’s the deal when you become a parent—the amount of unconditional love you feel for your children is so enormous and overwhelming that you didn’t and couldn’t possibly have known that you had it in you to give. There’s […]

Grief and Aikido: Relaxing Under Pressure

Posted on December 5, 2025 - by gyanirichards

“Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.” — Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido Grief is one of the deepest kinds of spiritual work we will ever do because it arises from the deepest parts of who we are. As we explore these depths, we discover one of the most fundamental human behaviors, which is the reflexive habit of turning away from pain. Everything in our mental, physical, and emotional DNA tells us to avoid discomfort at all costs. We are wired to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. But this habit to avoid […]

Finding Strength and Wisdom after the Loss of a Father

Posted on November 24, 2025 - by Noah Krishna Villadelgado

Losing a father is one of the hardest experiences in life. It’s a loss that reshapes you, leaving an emptiness that never truly fades. The pain is deep, and the absence is felt in the quiet moments—the advice left unsaid, the laughter no longer shared, the steady presence that once grounded you. But in that grief, there is also transformation. The loss teaches us how fleeting life is, reminding us to cherish every moment, to be present, and to live with purpose. It gives us a kind of wisdom that only comes through pain—a deeper understanding of what truly […]

The Silence After Goodbye: My Brother’s Suicide and the Gifts He Left Behind

Posted on November 21, 2025 - by authordanak

Drastically, his mental state had deteriorated. Now I see it clearly: my brother was incredibly strong for holding on as long as he did. He carried the weight for over a decade, ever since I left him behind when I immigrated to Canada. Conditioned to live by abandoning his own needs and silencing his own dreams, he poured all his energy into everyone else. Facing my own suicidal thoughts became the heaviest burden of all. Only later did I learn from Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s The Wilderness of Suicide Grief: Survivors of suicide loss are at high risk themselves. It’s not just […]

Reclaiming the Appetite: Learning to Feed Myself Again

Posted on November 20, 2025 - by JenniferSuki

For a long time, my go-to stress mode was restriction. Not just with food, but with everything. When life felt uncertain, I’d tighten my grip. Shrink my schedule. Shrink my appetite. Shrink myself. It was a way of controlling what I could. A survival reflex from years of starving out my own needs while serving everyone else’s. The irony is that I built a life feeding others, yet often forgot to feed myself. Grief made that pattern louder. It’s strange how something can feel heavy and hollow at the same time. The weight of loss. The emptiness of absence. The […]