Working Through Grief

The Loss of A Child

March 5th, 2013
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When I have been in support group sessions and listened as people have talked about losing a spouse, I can almost feel the unspoken emotional support developing within the group; a sense of bonding, a feeling of “having been there” in the expressed feeling or thought.  A supportive dialogue sometimes follows and I’ve heard people say after the sessions that they have felt a sense of personal progress in working through their own emotions because they heard someone else express familiar thoughts and feelings.
Being around other widows and widowers can be a blessing after you have lost a spouse.  … Read More

Nutritionally Yours

March 1st, 2013
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  The loss of a loved one can literally take your appetite away. You find that you can barely get out of bed and food is not appealing at all.  You feel as though you are walking through cotton candy.  All of your senses seem dulled and off.Sadly, these symptoms are considered to be pretty normal for a person grieving. I remember at the reception after my husband’s funeral I really didn’t want anything to eat.  I had a yogurt before going to the church for the funeral mass but that was about all I could handle.  People kept giving… Read More

Writing About Grief & Finding The Right Words

February 26th, 2013
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I think the hardest thing about writing is writing.                                                ~ Journalist, Author and Screenwriter Nora Ephron During Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony, tributes were paid to those in the film industry who passed away in the past year.  Nora Ephron was among the brilliant people in the entertainment business who sadly died last year.  She most certainly was a bright twinkling star in her own right and the producers of the show chose to display the above quote in her honor. Ephron was a keen observer of American culture and especially the stormy and romantic relationships between men and women. … Read More

Male & Female Grief Talk

February 22nd, 2013
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As a woman, I have had many conversations with men about all different kinds of subjects.  After years of experience I can tell you that if you are not talking to men about sports, sex, food or them that after a certain amount of time, their eyes will start to glaze over and their ears will tune you out. Most women instinctively know that they like to talk a lot more than men do.  I know that I really enjoy verbally taking a situation apart and talking about it and then verbally trying to put it back together again in… Read More

A New Day; A New Way

February 19th, 2013
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They say that sharing is caring and I care so much about my readers that when I read the below post yesterday from the Bereaved Partners Support Group (@BereavedPartner on Twitter), I couldn’t wait to share it with you. So many things in this article resonated with me: especially the idea of stepping into your fears and working through them to find something new in your changed life. Healing and recovery happen.  It may not feel as though this natural process is happening to you but it is.  You must believe in a new way of life and even a… Read More

Roger Rosenblatt’s Reflections

February 13th, 2013
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Some wonderful friends on the West Coast gave me Roger Rosenblatt’s book, Kayak Morning, as a Christmas present.  I was familiar with Rosenblatt as a writer for Time magazine and also as a columnist for The Washington Post, but was unfamiliar with the tragic death of his daughter, Amy Solomon,  a 38-year-old wife and mother of three children, from a heart condition. In Kayak Morning, which was written two years after Amy’s death, Rosenblatt explores the human experience of loss.  His descriptions of his grief and his reflections about his daughter Amy’s death are calm and straightforward yet poignant. It… Read More

Steve Martin Remembers His Father

February 7th, 2013
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Comedian Steve Martin in 2011 Comedian Steve Martin is obviously an incredibly multi-talented, award-winning funny guy. To me, Steve Martin is one of those celebrities that I just accept as being the way they are as they present themselves in their work.  I don’t think of him as a little boy or as having parents.  He is who he is as he appears in the roles of his television and his film work. To the public, Steve Martin is the hysterical stand-up comedian who played the “wild and crazy guy” and many other characters on Saturday Night Live or he… Read More

Breaking Out of Expectations

February 4th, 2013
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Photo Courtesy NY Daily News When I write about rebuilding our lives after a loss, I don’t mean to make it sound as though I suddenly woke up one morning and decided “today is the day I’m going to try to put a brand new life together.” Instead, what I really mean to say is that it is a step-by-step process; figuring out what to do after your loved one has died is a much more subtle process that usually evolves slowly, almost as though you were hesitantly putting your toes into a cold ocean and getting used to the… Read More

Healing Therapy

February 1st, 2013
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Drawing By NYC Multiple Medium Artist Joe Mangrum One of my sisters has a shoulder that is frozen and she is going to a physical therapist who helps her work through the incredibly stiff shoulder muscles and joint.  If the physical therapy doesn’t work, then she may have to have surgery and she really doesn’t want that to happen. The other day we were talking about her physical therapy and she was telling me about how the therapist told her that to really get the exercises to unlock the muscles and joint that she would need to take the current… Read More