Loss of a Family Member

Bereavement

Hurting and in pain and looking for hope? In times of bereavement watch, read and listen to stories of hope and recovery.

Articles

  • In Search of Healthy Grieving

    Posted on December 6, 2023 - by Harriet Hodgson

    In Search of Healthy Grieving I wanted to experience “healthy grieving.” These words often appear in grief articles and books. Did healthy grieving mean sobbing like crazy, being confused, or […]

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  • Are You Making Progress in Your Grief?

    Posted on November 21, 2023 - by Beth Marshall

    So how do you know if you’re making progress on this messy journey called grief? I remember going through seasons where a trigger would wipe me out or tears would […]

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  • Questions You May Ask in Your Pain

    Posted on November 17, 2023 - by Beth Marshall

    During the intense period after the loss of my favorite people, many questions ran through my mind. These are questions you might ask in your pain. Will the tsunami of […]

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  • One Step at a Time: Through the ‘Dark Valley,’

    Posted on November 15, 2023 - by Beth Marshall

    After months of trying to outrun the ache and sprint toward some imaginary silver lining, I realized that running from the pain can leave you crushed, lonely, and confused. In […]

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  • ‘What Do You Do with All this Pain?’

    Posted on November 13, 2023 - by Beth Marshall

    Have you ever gotten news that literally took your breath away? I surely have. It was the late-night call that my mom—my healthy, hilarious, newlywed mom—was gone. Nobody could have […]

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  • Writing Helps Bereaved Find Gratitude

    Posted on November 9, 2023 - by Beth Marshall

    Writing Helps Bereaved Whenever you set out to write a book, an important first step is clearly defining your audience. When I started dreaming about Uncrushed, I assumed it would […]

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  • Circle Up for Healing

    Posted on October 29, 2023 - by Candace Lynn Talmadge

    Circle Up for Healing According to the well-known Western European myth of Camelot, King Arthur gathered his knights at a circular table. He chose that particular table configuration to foster […]

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  • ‘Soul Senses’ Can Help with Grief

    Posted on October 28, 2023 - by Candace Lynn Talmadge

    ‘Soul Senses’ Can Help with Grief The soul senses are the primary means by which we are able to apply the principles of love, connection, and trust. We need the […]

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  • Preparing for Your Winter of Grief

    Posted on October 16, 2023 - by Bradie Hansen

    Preparing for Your Winter of Grief In Vermont where I live, the change of seasons brings a significant shift of feeling and sensation. The sounds change as birds migrate, cicadas’ […]

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  • Gratitude Amid the Unfairness of Loss

    Posted on September 18, 2023 - by Ken Lefkowitz

    After losing two children, Carolyn and Matthew, and then having two more children, Kim and Danny, my wife explained a recent experience. Holding Child After Death She said: “The other […]

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  • Reconnecting with Mom Through Plant Medicine

    Posted on September 18, 2023 - by Ken Breniman

    Losing Mom as a Teen I was only 18 when my mother succumbed to pancreatic cancer. However, in the following two decades, I persistently avoided the profound pain of being […]

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  • An Old Testament-Grief Connection

    Posted on September 18, 2023 - by Colleen Friesen

    In recent months, I have been struggling with what I have come to see as a different stage of my grief journey. I wrote about that challenge in my last […]

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  • Dreams Can Help the Grieving Process

    Posted on September 18, 2023 - by Ellen Besso

    Dreams Can Help the Grieving Process I began preparing myself for my mother’s death a long time ago, even before she came to live in our community so that we […]

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  • When a Parent Starts Dating: The Role of Adult Children

    Posted on September 11, 2023 - by Mike Bernhardt

    Dating After a Spouse-Loss Our society has so many expectations for us after our spouse has died. We should grieve—depending on the expectations of our friends, religious traditions, or workplace […]

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  • Finding Authenticity Through Grief

    Posted on September 11, 2023 - by Dr. Carol Leibovich Mankes

    Finding Authenticity Through Grief Seven years ago, I embarked on a journey that would redefine the very essence of who I was. Becoming a solo mom after a lifetime spent […]

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  • Grief Has Many Emotions

    Posted on August 28, 2023 - by Anne Peterson

    Grief Has Many Emotions With my mother gone and my father gone, I often felt abandoned. I’d look around and notice other families. Families that seemed happy. But seeing them […]

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  • Living with the Knowledge of Our Mortality

    Posted on July 31, 2023 - by Greg Adams

    Knowledge of Our Mortality Sometimes they are nudges. Other times, pokes. More rarely, thankfully, they are punches in the gut. Most often, I think of them as “mortality slaps.” Whatever […]

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  • Lessons from Wild Boy

    Posted on July 27, 2023 - by Alice Wisler

    Lessons from Wild Boy He was a toddler who played with plastic dinosaurs, Tonka trucks, and dirt. His older sister made me feel like an accomplished mama because whenever I […]

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  • This Could Save Your Life: Writing Through Tragedy

    Posted on July 25, 2023 - by Alice Wisler

    “It is, in the end, the saving of lives we writers are about. We do it because we care. We care because we know this: the life we save is […]

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  • Tasks and Needs of Mourning

    Posted on July 23, 2023 - by Dr. Beth Hewett

    Tasks of Mourning Psychologist Dr. William Worden’s four tasks of mourning give grounding to much of grief research today. Worden saw mourning as the outward expression of grief. The tasks […]

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  • Making Sense of Grief Through Mindful Writing

    Posted on July 21, 2023 - by Dr. Beth Hewett

    Making Sense of Grief Through Mindful Writing One way to address grief-filled paradigm change and transition is to engage in mindful writing exercises. Telling one’s story mindfully means sharing it […]

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  • Open to  hope

    Why We Mourn

    Posted on July 12, 2023 - by Dr. Beth Hewett

    Cascade of Losses One July day, just ten days after his twentieth wedding anniversary and two days before his oldest child’s eighteenth birthday, my brother fell from the sky. I […]

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  • Common Workplace Losses

    Posted on July 9, 2023 - by Dr. Beth Hewett

    There are many types of losses. Two that occur often in the workplace are loss of a parent and loss of a child. Here are some thoughts about these two […]

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  • What to Say to a Family After Suicide

    Posted on July 5, 2023 - by Donna Berger

    What to Say to a Family After Suicide The death of a loved one is a catastrophic loss, but when a loved one has taken his or her own life, […]

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  • Helping Co-workers After a Loss

    Posted on July 3, 2023 - by Dr. Beth Hewett

    Helping Co-workers After a Loss Grief is a major workplace challenge—even without pandemic conditions. Bereavement experts (see Bento, 1994, for example) have seen workplace grief as “disenfranchised” insofar as the […]

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  • Is Grieving a Denial of God?

    Posted on June 23, 2023 - by Brandi Reyna

    Grieving the loss of your loved one does not mean that you have lost your faith or gone astray. Deep grief means you loved deeply, and that is not a […]

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  • Father’s Day After a Daughter Has Died

    Posted on June 18, 2023 - by Lo Anne Mayer

    Father’s Day After a Daughter Has Died Father’s Day in our house is a mixed blessing.  Even though some of our six children and 13 grandchildren will come to celebrate, […]

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  • When a Couple Grieves Differently: After a Child Dies

    Posted on June 15, 2023 - by Sherry Cassedy

    Mom and Dad Grieve Differently The death of a child is a devastating loss for anyone; it is even more difficult for a marriage. For the marriage to survive, both […]

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  • Embracing Mother’s Day without Mom

    Posted on May 29, 2023 - by Dr. Carol Leibovich Mankes

    Embracing Mother’s Day without Mom Losing my mother is one of the hardest things I have gone through. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. That day, I […]

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  • Understanding Compounded Grief and Ways to Cope

    Posted on May 23, 2023 - by Jacqui Coombe

    There are so many things to enjoy about life. Hand in hand with this enjoyment is the fact that there will sometimes be tough periods in life. These periods will […]

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  • Deciding to Let Go

    Posted on May 23, 2023 - by Stan Goldberg

    Recent discussions of whether California Senator Dianne Feinstein should retire ignore one of the most important elements that affect decisions about retiring: The willingness to assume a new identity. Identity […]

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  • Compassion for Grieving Moms on Mother’s Day

    Posted on May 17, 2023 - by Judy Lipson

    Grieving Moms on Mother’s Day Happy Mother’s Day Month to all the mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers. I want to acknowledge and show compassion to those who have lost a […]

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  • Putting Your Grief Wisdom to Work

    Posted on May 8, 2023 - by Colleen Friesen

    People living with the loss of a significant relationship often find themselves buried beneath avalanches of advice and information. Additionally, when we suffer, we tend to seek out material that […]

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  • Does Everything Happen ‘For a Reason’?

    Posted on May 2, 2023 - by Greg Adams

    Does Everything Happen For a Reason? Somewhere in adolescence, certainly before young adulthood, I heard the saying, “everything happens for a reason.” It seems like I’ve always known this phrase. […]

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Open to Hope Radio

  • Uncrushed

    Posted on November 13, 2023 - by Beth Marshall

    Uncrushed, by Beth Marshall