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The Season of Renaissance

Posted on April 9, 2009 - by Yvonne Lancaster

By Yvonne Lancaster — The yard was still icy near the fence where it hides from the lowering sun. As a brave New Englander who shoveled her way through the long months of winter, it was heartening to see and feel the crusty brown earth beneath my feet and see crocuses peeking at me with their little green buds. Since childhood, I have always enjoyed the changing seasons.  In many ways, nature taught me about life, death and many things that matter.  In the summer, we were allowed to play outside until the street lights came on.  In the fall, […]

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Surviving Child Demonstrates Meaning of Easter

Posted on April 9, 2009 - by Mitch Carmody

By Mitch Carmody — In December of 1987, our 9-year-old son, Kelly James, died following two arduous years of fighting brain cancer. That ensuing Christmas, we were so numb in our grief that much of it is now a faded memory. But that following Easter, we received a gift, a gift that I share it with you now. When Kelly died, his sister Meagan was 6 years old; our only child now, she was left with two grieving parents who were in a deep funk for the most of a long Minnesota winter. We had fought so long to save […]

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Grief, Loss and a Proven Plan for Peace of Mind

Posted on April 8, 2009 - by admin

by Lou LaGrand, grief counselor and author Are you in a state of confusion? Have you made the decision that you will get through this loss? Are you confronting your loss and fears? If not, why not? Peace of mind is the ultimate goal of good grief so that one can begin the work of reinvesting in a life in the absence of the physical presence of the deceased. Peace of mind is also an inner strength that has both emotional and biological value of immense proportions. From it flows unexpected joy and a new energy base. But how can […]

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The New Wallet

Posted on April 8, 2009 - by Eric Tomei

For my birthday this past year I got a brand new Coach wallet from my fiance.   Now, before I met my fiance I was used to being called Coach as I coached a baseball team for four years, not having it as a personal accessory.   I have come to learn that has great quality merchandise and this wallet looked like it was made of the finest brown leather.   My current wallet I have had for about 11 years and people have been telling me for years to get a new one.   But you know what, I […]

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Music: How it Can be a Healing Friend

Posted on April 8, 2009 - by Tony Falzano

By Tony Falzano — There’s an old saying that time will heal all wounds. This includes that punch in the gut you feel you took the moment you lost someone or something that was dear to you. For people suffering pain from loss, time will eventually ease the grief and heal the hurt. It will also allow life to be bearable and even enjoyable again. Time is a major component in the healing process. But what does a person do with the pain and emptiness after the burial is complete and the concerns and dinners offered by others are less […]

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Playing Hurt

Posted on April 6, 2009 - by admin

by Carolina Fernandez When we got the call at 2 AM last Saturday, I hopped out of bed with the thought that anyone faced with a ring in the middle of the night would have: “Who in the world would be calling us at this hour?” I looked at caller ID and, not recognizing the number and seeing that it was not Nick, our son away at college some thirteen hours from home I yawned and crawled back into bed, pulling the down covers way up over my head. Forgetting all about that middle-of-the-night-call, I moved through Sunday morning as always: […]

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How Do You Grieve For an Ex-Spouse?

Posted on April 6, 2009 - by admin

By Mel Glazer — My first wife died several weeks ago. We were married almost thirty years, we have four kids and four grandsons, and we were divorced four years ago. Donna was sick for many years, and her body finally gave out. As sad as it was, it was also a relief. As I am fond of saying, The Angel of Death is not always an enemy, and in this case it was true. But as difficult as the last years might have been between us, her death created new and wrenching dilemmas for me and the kids. I […]

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How Can Daughter Help Dad After Painful Loss?

Posted on April 6, 2009 - by Neil Chethik

Melissa writes in: My brother, Michael, died yesterday of a heroin overdose. He was 40 years old. The grief I feel is a fraction of what my parents are experiencing. I was detatched from my brother for years because I could not be around him because he was often under the influence of drugs. I grieve for his loss of life, but the pain I feel from watching my parents grieve for loss of a child seems equally as painful. He died in my parents’ home, where he had lived for 3 years after the consequences of his addiction took […]

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Film Review: The Sweet Hereafter

Posted on April 5, 2009 - by Fran Dorf

By Fran Dorf — This somber, difficult film directed by Atom Egoyan, based on the 1991 novel by Russell Banks, is set in a small town in the aftermath of a school bus accident that has killed most of the town’s children.  Into this devastating scene descends a slick, big city, ambulance-chasing lawyer, played by Ian Holmes. He is a man pursued by the demons of losing his own daughter to drugs, and he visits each of the victims’ parents to stir up their anger and coax them to participate in a class action lawsuit to profit fr om the […]

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Multiple Losses: When the Tears of Grief Return

Posted on April 4, 2009 - by Harriet Hodgson

By Harriet Hodgson — Recovering from multiple losses takes time, grief work, and years of self-examination. You do not recover from multiple losses, you learn to live with them. The process requires acceptance, reconciliation, and the creation of a new life. I have lived all of these things. In February of 2007, my daughter died from the injuries she received in a car crash. Two days later, on the same weekend, my father-in-law succumbed to pneumonia. The deaths stunned me. I was still stunned eight weeks later when my brother died of cancer. Then, nine months later, my former son-in-law […]

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