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Creating Memorial Services with Heart

Posted on March 4, 2009 - by Carol O'Dell

By Carol O’Dell Creating a meaningful memorial service for your loved one is cathartic, and you don’t have to wait until your loved one passes to begin to think about what they — and you — want and need. It’s a part of caregiving you’d rather not think about, but it’s the last thing you can do to honor their wishes and gather everyone around to reminisce, consol each other, and share precious memories. Planning funerals and/or memorial services takes time, and you’d rather spend those last few weeks and days your loved one has on earth at their side. […]

Mother Seeking Help for Military Son With PTSD

Posted on March 4, 2009 - by Ami Neiberger-Miller

Question from Stephanie: I am writing you in regards to my son, who was enlisted in the Army for 20+ years and at this time, he is dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the beginning, he was having bad dreams and would constantly “jerk” during the night. Currently, the dreams seem to be getting worse. I need to find out where to go or who to call in order to get him the help he needs. I’ve been talking it over with him and he does not want to be placed on drugs. We wrote two years ago about the […]

Film Review: Space Between Breaths

Posted on March 4, 2009 - by Rosemary Smith

By Rosemary Smith – Who are we? What really matters? Is it possible to find true happiness after a great loss? These were some of the questions we tried to answer in the film my husband Luther and I produced, call “Space Between Breaths.” In the film, we looked at the possibility that grief can be a motivational, transformational force in our lives. The film features conversations with parents who have lost a child (as we did), including those whose loved ones died at Columbine, on September 11th, and in Iraq. We hope that “Space Between Breaths” offers an inspired […]

A Spiritual Connection To Our Pet Companions

Posted on March 2, 2009 - by John Pete

Picture the humorous sight of a Golden Retriever with short, little Corgi legs and you have a glimpse of our precious Tucker, who died February 21, 2009 at age 16 1/2. Tucker was truly a ray of sunshine in our lives. She was always there to greet us at the door with her big brown trusting eyes, an enthusiastic wag of her tail, and a bark of elation as if we were returning from a long journey instead of an hour or two away from home. Little did she know that we were as eager to see her as she […]

The Twins Born From Grief

Posted on March 1, 2009 - by Claire Perkins

Exactly one year to the day after losing my 26-year-old son to a drug overdose, I had this dream: May 3, 2005 – The doctor tells me I’m pregnant. Oh my God, I don’t want to have another baby at this age! It will be so much work and I don’t have the energy. I am torn. I love babies, but I don’t want one of my own. Yet, I can’t have an abortion because I feel like God must have given me this baby and I can’t turn away from that. I hope that maybe the doctor is wrong. […]

Film Review: Nicholas’ Gift

Posted on March 1, 2009 - by Reg Green

By Reg Green — It may seem like the ultimate in narcissism, but my choice for best grief film is a TV movie that was made about my own family. It is called “Nicholas’ Gift” and is the story of how, on a vacation in Italy, our seven-year-old son, Nicholas, was shot in an attempted carjacking and how we donated his organs and saved many lives. Jamie Lee Curtis played my wife, Maggie. Alan Bates was me. The director was Robert Markowitz, whose long list of titles includes “Tuskegee Airmen,” a TV movie about the first African-American air squadron in […]

Remembering in Maui

Posted on February 28, 2009 - by Sandy Fox

by Sandy Fox This past week I have been in Maui. I love Hawaii and so did my daughter Marcy. We first brought her here in 1980. She loved the beach, playing in the sand and particularly picking up shells from the ocean. She continued to visit here. One time when she was older, we took her boyfriend with us; another time we took her grandmother. We eventually purchased a condo to stay in when on the island. Her last trip here was with her soon to be husband in 1993. They loved it and vowed to return. It was […]

Film Review: The Visitor

Posted on February 28, 2009 - by Fran Dorf

By Fran Dorf — Grief is both the thematic underpinning and the overarching aura in this low key, but absorbing and powerful film. Although humanistic and realistic, the film is suffused with memories of the dead, which loom over the characters like silent watchful ghosts. Written and directed by Tom McCarthy, The Visitor explores issues of identity and place, belonging and connection, and immigration and other post 9/11 issues, but it primarily revolves around a bereaved economics professor named Walter Vale, played by Richard Jenkins, the subtle actor who memorably played the ghostly Fisher father in my all-time favorite television […]

Publicizing End of Life: Has Reality TV Gone Too Far?

Posted on February 27, 2009 - by Norman Fried

By Norman Fried — A?media star who first became famous for her role as a?crude talking, hard drinking? member of the 2002 reality television show “Big Brother,” has announced in The News of the World that she is dying of end stage cervical and liver cancer. Jane Goody, who has made herself a media phenomenon in England through her participation in several reality shows, exercise videos, a perfume label and a published autobiography, told the News of the World, “I have lived my whole adult life in front of the cameras. And maybe I’ll die in front of them.” Media outlets have […]

Woman Nervous About Dating Widower

Posted on February 27, 2009 - by Marty Tousley

Question from a reader: I’m at the very beginning of a potential relationship with a guy who I’ve reconnected with after many years (we knew each other in high school). His spouse of 27+ years passed away four months ago, after a very long (21 years) battle with Multiple Sclerosis. He still grieves for her at times when he’s reminded of her, but he is moving on with his life. I’m nervous about getting involved with him too soon. He says he started grieving his loss of her before she even died since she’d been bed-ridden for two years, and […]