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Refilling The Hole of Loss

Posted on January 15, 2007 - by admin

The truth of celebration is there often is a bittersweet element to it. Someone may be missing this year in the celebration. The last Christmas my family had with my husband was spent at the hospital and at home. We had a Christmas tree at both locations. The children were nine and seven. Christmas morning the children woke up to presents under the tree and stockings filled as the three of us experienced our first Christmas without Dad with us. Later that morning, we went to the hospital with gifts and he had the gifts I’d purchased he would give […]

Dear Friend of GriefWorks,

Posted on January 14, 2007 - by admin

Dear Friend of GriefWorks, As the New Year gets underway, I want to remind you that GriefWorks is offering a six-week “Family Night Series” from 6:15-8:15 p.m., beginning January 18. Families will begin the evening together with a light dinner (which is provided) and a brief introduction. Then we will divide into groups for parents, teens, and children. In a supportive environment and using age-appropriate activities, family members will have the opportunity to share and work through their grief. Then we will conclude the evening by bringing all the family members back together for a brief summary of the evening. […]

For Widows Only — Three Secret Things To Guide You

Posted on January 14, 2007 - by

You’re home now — From the cemetery — Just closed the door on an endless line of well-wishing-filled-with-advice strangers who didn’t know what to say but talked endlessly anyway, and now that they’re gone you know you will never see or hear from most of them ever again. Your hair smells of roses and gladioli and you secretly wish for a giant eraser to erase all the pain. You’ve just buried your life partner; your husband, your best friend. As Joan Didion says, “Life changes fast.”

For Widows Only — What I’ve Learned

Posted on January 13, 2007 - by Linda Della-Donna

After my husband died, I trashed my writing — Journals — An accumulation of spiral bound notebooks, one for each month of each year for four years. And a YA novel manuscript I was working on. I blamed my husband’s dying on my writing. I told myself, Self, if you hadn?t spent so much time writing, you might have noticed your husband was sick.

LOSS: The Time Sequences of Grief: Moving Through Loss

Posted on January 13, 2007 - by Gloria Lintermans

The loss of a spouse is one of the most difficult loses we experience as your entire day-to-day life is turned upside-down. The grieving process following this loss is divided into five time sequences of grief. One to four months would be called SHOCK, five to eight months of mourning is DENIAL, nine to twelve months is ANGER, thirteen to seventeen months is DEPRESSION, eighteen to twenty four months is INTEGRATION, ADJUSTMENT and TRANSITION.

For the Newly Widowed:Top Ten Tacky Things People Will Say to You and Ten Ways You Can React to Them

Posted on January 12, 2007 - by

Read the top ten tacky things people will say. Practice ways to react before going out, and before you know it, each new day will be filled with the sound of music and sunlight instead of your friends’ and neighbors’ tacky comments and questions.

Byron Katie, Author, Speaker, Joins Healing the Grieving Heart National Radio Show January 11th

Posted on January 11, 2007 - by admin

Time Magazine ?100 Innovators: The Next Wave? Byron Katie to be interviewed by ?Healing the Grieving Heart? Hosts, Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley on January 11th, 2007. New York, New York and San Francisco, California ? Nationally renown author, speaker and motivator Byron Katie will join Drs. Gloria & Heidi Horsley on their nationally syndicated talk radio program ?Healing the Grieving Heart? January 11th, 9 AM PST/12 Noon EST. ?Our audience is ecstatic about Katie joining us to talk about The Work and her upcoming book A Thousand Names for Joy. Her message of self-inquiry and hope have helped hundreds […]

How to Remember Those Who Have Passed Away

Posted on January 9, 2007 - by admin

1) Share your memories with friends and family and get them to share theirs too. You may learn things that you didn’t know about your loved one. 2) Leave memorial flowers at your church, or another special spot such as the beach. 3) Create a memory box containing special items that belonged to you and your loved one. Place little notes in it with special memories on.

“a grieving mother” – Response from Dr. Coralease Cox Ruff

Posted on January 8, 2007 - by Coralease Ruff

Dear “a grieving mother”, I am sorry to hear of the death of your precious daughter. The devastating experience of the death of a child is a life long experience that we all respond to and deal with differently. You question if your husband?s chest pain, GI upset etc can be the result of delayed grief or PTSD. To answer that question one must always obtain a thorough diagnostic workup to determine what if any organic disease is causing the symptoms. Since this resulted in no pathology to explain his symptoms, then it is important to look at other possibilities. […]

When The Cell Phone Stops Ringing

Posted on January 8, 2007 - by

My wife, Bobbie, and I, were not big fans of the cell phone in the beginning, but we did communicate at least twice a day or night. I was a swing shift worker. She was a day shifter. Earlier in our marriage, we used beepers or pagers. They could get irritating without a voice to deal with, but the price was much cheaper. Then there was the problem of finding a phone to answer the beep. But, all that’s said and done, any communication was helpful, and we were thankful for that.