Sandy Fox

Sandy Fox has won four finalist awards for her recent book "Creating a New Normal...After the Death of a Child" with over 80 coping articles and a huge resource section. One award is from USA Book News in the Health/Death and Dying Category for 2010. The second award is from ForeWord Reviews in the Health Category for 2010. The third is from Royal Dragonfly Book Awards. The most recent finalist award is for the self-help category of the 2011 Indie Book Awards. She is also the author of another grief book, "I Have No Intention of Saying Good-bye." “I Have No Intention of Saying Good-bye” tells the stories of 25 sets of parents and how they moved on with their lives after the death of their child, offering hope and survival techniques. Sandy has headed two national bereavement conferences for childless parents and spoken for many years at Compassionate Friends National conferences, POMC and across the U.S. to a variety of bereavement groups. She also writes articles for the Open to Hope site, EZ articles, and Journey through grief newsletter in addition to her own weekly blog: www.survivinggrief.blogspot.com. Sandy can be contacted at sfoxaz@hotmail.com to set up any speaking engagements or to ask any questions related to surviving the death of a child. Sandy was a guest on the radio show “Healing the Grieving Heart“ discussing: “I have no intention of Saying Good-Bye: Coping Techniques for the Now Childless.” To hear Sandy being interviewed on this show by Dr. Gloria & Dr. Heidi Horsley, click on the following link: www.voiceamericapd.com/health/010157/horsley010407.mp3

Articles:

Reminiscing…

by Sandy Fox What would my life have been like if my daughter were alive today? I often think of that question and ponder on the answers. I envision all sorts of scenarios. Marcy and her husband would be giving lots of parties. They were both involved in the Hollywood scene and were meeting lots of new people in 1994 when she died. Marcy knew how much I liked Barry Manilow, so back in 1992 when she found out that as part of her job, she was in charge of a reception he was singing at, she invited me to […]

Comfort

by Sandy Fox Time heals…she is in a better place…she is still with you…you should exercise every day…there, now, don’t you feel better? No, I don’t, and neither do you if you have lost a child. Our grief is with us always and there is nothing that will make it go away or make us forget. We will always be devastated, but eventually we learn to live again. In her newest book, Comfort, Ann Hood takes us on a journey with her 5-year-old daughter, Grace, who died suddenly from strep throat, a journey for Hood that will no doubt last […]

Mentioning Deceased Child’s Name is a Gift to Mom

by Sandy Fox — I often think of an afternoon stage production I attended with five friends because it confirms to me that my child lives on in other hearts as well as mine. While waiting on line to get in to the production, I saw an old aquaintance whose chidren knew my daughter Marcy. The mother, Yetta, and her son Mark were there to see the production also. Mark’s wife wrote it and stars in it. After saying hello to Yetta, I was introduced to her son. “Mark, this is Sandy Fox. Do you remember Sandy’s daughter, Marcy Finerman? […]

Springtime…cleaning and remembering

by Sandy Fox Springtime. A time to clean house, clean the yard, and, as I do so, just another season to think about my daughter and how much I miss her. She has been gone now for 15 years. I clean the house, glancing at the boxes in my closet of what is left of her life. It is compacted into a small corner of the closet. There is not much. Some award, some writings, some childhood items, all the lovely notes and remembrances from others, and most of all, the photos. Photos that are worth a thousand words, a […]

Continuation of Issues for Childless Parents

by Sandy Fox In my previous blog I spoke of issues parents have when they lose their only child. I spoke of “Am I still a mother,” “Do I need to make a new will?, and “Will there be any special events in my life?” Today I’ll finish with four other issues. First, “listening to others talk about their children and grandchildren.” My bridge friends talk about their children and grandchildren all the time. They have every right to. But do they really understand how I feel? Of course not. It’s never happened to them. They can never understand what […]

Unique Aspects of Losing an Only Child

by Sandy Fox When a parent loses an only child or all their children, we learn there are unique aspects that confront us. I will be listing for you in this blog and the next, some of these aspects of being childless. I begin with what I believe to be three most important questions: “Am I still a mother?” “Do I need to make a new will” and “Will I ever have any more special events in my life.” First, “Am I still a mother?” Of course we are. We will always be a mother, whether our child is alive […]

When Words Become Precious Gifts

by Sandy Fox I often think of an afternoon stage production I attended with five friends because it confirms to me that my child lives on in other hearts as well as mine. While waiting on line to get in to the production, I saw an old aquaintance whose chidren knew my daughter Marcy. The mother, Yetta, and her son Mark were there to see the production also. Mark’s wife wrote it and stars in it. After saying hello to Yetta, I was introduced to her son. “Mark, this is Sandy Fox. Do you remember Sandy’s daughter, Marcy Finerman?” Before Mark’s […]

Remembering in Maui

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 […]

Time Doesn’t Heal, But it Softens the Blow

By Sandy Fox When a person talks about an important year in his/her life, or a news show on TV asks what you were doing on a particular date, I always think of my daughter, Marcy. The year 1966, when she was born, is the most important. What was happening in the world then? Vietnam War. President Johnson. The Beatles. Twenty-five cent hamburgers. I associate every year between 1966 and 1994 with Marcy and what she was about then. If the year is before 1966, it is “before Marcy was born.” If I’m told to think of the year 1984, […]

Organ Donation Can Ease Pain of Child-Loss

by Sandy Fox Thanks to a cornea transplant, Jason was able to see again for the first time in 31 years; at the age of 39, a kidney transplant saved David’s life; for Richard, a bone transplant meant the chance to live a normal life again; and when Darcy’s son gets older, she’ll tell him about the transplant that saved her life. All of these are examples of people who received organ donations. In my book, one of the stories I wrote about is the death of two children in the same family from a car accident and the donation […]

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