Mourning – The Expression of Grief

By: Sharon Young
According to Webster’s New World Dictionary grief is defined as “intense emotional suffering caused by loss, disaster, misfortune, etc.; acute sorrow; deep sadness.” Mourning is the expression of grief.
We usually think of grief as affecting our feelings and emotions, but it really affects every part of us. We may feel things such as [...]

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Good Stages of Grief?

By: Ann Estlund
Most widows go through a crazy emotional rollercoaster as they move from one stage to another. One moment they are flying high and the next they are sinking morosely into a pit. They can be on level ground one minute, but the next may find them perching warily on a high wire or [...]

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The Practicalities of Coping with A Suicide

By Lucie Storrs
Your tears have not yet dried. You haven’t had time to experience your deep feelings about your loved one’s suicide. In many ways, you’re still in shock. Nevertheless, death, like anything else, has its own practicalities that must be accomplished. You, your family members and your loved one’s friends need closure for the [...]

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The Search for Meaning When a Loved One Dies

By Louis LaGrand, Ph.D.
Meaning affects everything we do; and equally important it affects the body and its physiology as attested to by the many examples of body-mind relationships, such as the placebo effect. Finding meaning in death is not always easy, and sometimes it is hard to find.
However, the search for meaning when a loved [...]

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Explaining Suicide to Children

By Tracy Pierson
“What should I tell the children?” A question often asked after the suicide of a loved one. The answer – the truth.
Many people still believe it is best to shield children from the truth, that somehow this will protect them. More often than not, the opposite is true. Misleading children, evading the truth, [...]

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Facing the Truth and Making Decisions

I’m a secretary and part of my job is to answer the phone. I do it automatically, saying my little blurb each time, and I think nothing of it. Yesterday, I sat at my desk and reached for the receiver as the phone started to ring. Having said my blurb, I heard [...]

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Choices Taken Away

When Barry died, I tried to stop the world and go back for him and I hated the world for pulling me along with it. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I couldn’t do anything. When I finally realised that some things are out of [...]

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The Swell of Waves

Most people have sat beside the ocean and watched the waves come and go. Sometimes they crash violently against the rocks, causing damage and destruction – and sometimes death. Yet at other times, they gently roll in and out without causing much disturbance.
Grief is like that. It comes and goes [...]

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To Lose a Child

Tears without end
Days without nights
Night without day
Time without forgetting.
Food without taste
Sleep without rest
Sorrow without comfort.
Pain without limit
Emptiness without bottom
Life without.
~ Author Unknown ~

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Diary of the Teenage Dead

Following my Session with a Medium I feel I’ve changed slightly. I have more hope and, although I have constantly fumbled around with thoughts of seeing Barry again, now I believe I will hear from him again…one day.
On Thursday night, I had a dream. It was short, but it was important – of [...]

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