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 | When Should I Clean Out the Closet?
Tuesday, June 07, 2011 | Some time back I received an email from a woman whose husband had died a few months prior to her writing. She wondered if she was reacting in a normal way to the task of disposing of her husband’s clothes. She had a friend... Read More
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| | What Do We Do with Anger?
Wednesday, April 06, 2011 | The best help we can receive comes from those who are walking the same pathways and dealing with the same feelings we are experiencing. I have permission to share the story... Read More
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| | Am I Doing It Right?
Monday, March 15, 2010 | Her husband died about a year and a half ago. They had been happily married for more than sixty years. Even though he had lived past eighty years, his death still seemed to be too soon and too sudden. He suffered a rather long illness and one would think... Read More
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| | Why Did Thanksgiving Hurt so Deeply?
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 | A couple of weeks ago was Thanksgiving, a day long associated with family and giving thanks for all the blessings of our lives. This week almost all of the folks I am companioning through their grief are asking me why the day was so painful... Read More
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| | Does it Ever Get Better?
Monday, November 02, 2009 | We have walked together for the more than seven years following the death of her daughter. The daughter was killed suddenly by a senseless act of another and the pain has been deeper than anyone could describe or explain. We moved from... Read More
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| | Are They Watching Me?
Monday, September 14, 2009 | I guess I started some of the first grief groups ever formed. At the time, I had no idea what a group was, I had just begun to realize that I knew nothing about grief and did not know how to learn. I had read every book I could find, which was three, and they weren’t... Read More
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| | Is There Preemptive Grief?
Monday, July 13, 2009 | I have been walking with a family through the long process of a terminal illness. Brain cancer is slowly taking the life of their twenty-one year old son. The process is long, the pain intense and the battle to control the pain has become a full time job for the entire family. Their situation touched . . . Read More
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| | What to do with Anger
Monday, May 18, 2009 | Last week two people wrote comments to some blogs. Needless to say, I was very pleased. These blogs will become the healthy and healing tools I hope them to be when folks start responding not only to me but to each other. Both of the comments were great and I will respond with blogs directed at the writers specifically but with the rest of you looking and chiming in.
The comment for this blog was at the end of . . . Read More
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| | Will I Get Better?
Monday, January 01, 0001 | Her mother died far too young and much too sudden three weeks ago. She sat in my office broken and vulnerable as we began what will be a long walk together through her grief journey. Her mother was only fifty-one and died of leukemia after a year long struggle... Read More
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| | Grief Delayed
Monday, January 01, 0001 | I cared for my father for several months before his condition forced us to use the services of a nursing home. Even after they took over a great deal of the daily care, I still felt a deep sense of responsibility and was required to spend a great deal of time and effort in his care... Read More
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| | How Long Does Grief Last?
Monday, January 01, 0001 | When I began writing about grief in the late seventies, I read everything I could find on the subject which turned out to be three books. We just didn't know very much about the process at all. There was a survey done during those days that asked people how long they thought grief lasted . . . Read More
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| | Will I Ever Stop Dreaming
Monday, January 01, 0001 | His wife died a suddenly few months ago. A mutual friend connected us and we began corresponding by phone and e-mail. It took a few conversations for him to develop the level of trust necessary to begin telling me the stuff he has not been able to talk to anyone about. It seems to me that almost everyone in grief has some things they just cannot share. . . Read More
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| | I Had No Idea It Hurt Like This
Monday, January 01, 0001 | A friend called this week to tell me his wife had died. She was a very vivacious young mother who died after a long struggle with cancer. He, of course, had seen the end coming for months and thought he had already done most of his grieving ahead of time. We keep thinking grief can be handled before the fact . . . Read More
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| | How Many Children Do You Have?
Monday, January 01, 0001 | One of my grandsons only lived thirty-four hours. He was born on Christmas Eve and died on Christmas day. The only time we got to spend with him was the fleeting moments just before he died. The rest of his short life was spent in a special room with oxygen and tubes. The short length of his life does not . . . Read More
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| | When Should I Consider Dating Again?
Monday, January 01, 0001 | I don't think there is any kind of definitive answer to that question. Some folks say the thought of dating again is almost sickening to them. Others begin dating quite soon after the death of a spouse. From my experience of walking with . . . Read More
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| | Is Everyone's Grief the Same?
Monday, January 01, 0001 | Is everyone's grief the same? The answer is yes and no. If we are talking about the general patterns of grief, then yes there will usually be similarities in the process. I have a friend who suffered the death of a brother and a daughter . . . Read More
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| | How am I Suppose to Act?
Monday, January 01, 0001 | When it dawned on me that I did not know anything about grief, I began to invite grieving people to join me in a discovery experience. I guess these were some of the first grief groups ever formed. I had never heard of groups and had no idea what we should do, but somehow folks seemed to work through some of their pain...
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| | Is There Such a Thing as Closure?
Monday, January 01, 0001 | I used to throw the word closure around with great confidence and little thought. I would talk about some experience of grief and say that the family found closure there. I began to get hints that the word closure was not . . . Read More
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