Grieving Child Loss

Grief is like the ocean; It comes on like waves ebbing and flowing

By Tracy Sheppard

As I sit on my back deck on this warm and humid May day, the wind is blowing in a warm muggy breeze. The trees are dancing and swaying. The sturdy white oak tree is like a mother to the leaves. Most appear to be securely attached to her core. Then a big gust blows by, and one lonely leaf has blown away, never to be held by its mother again. I am grieving the loss of a child.

I am like that tree.… Continue reading

When Anger Shows Up in Grief-How to Get Through It

WhenAngerShowsUpInGriefHowToGetThroughIt

Often we are angry following a death, it’s possible we don’t know how to handle these feelings or how to get through it

By Jackie Trottmann

After my mother’s death, the last emotion I thought I would feel is anger. Well, really… rage. It welled up from deep inside of me like I was possessed.

I wasn’t angry because of her passing. She had lived to be 96 with her wits about her until the end. Even with congestive heart failure and complications with diabetes, she didn’t suffer. What more of a blessing could you ask for?

Anger Shows Up… Continue reading

Has Death Been Your Teacher?

Has Death Been Your Teacher

Picture from Pixabay


When someone we loved and shared a close relationship with dies, we grieve their physical presence. But have you experienced lessons you may have learned from them more profoundly after they died and has death been your teacher?

When I talk with people who are or have grieved the death of a spouse as I have, it is fascinating to hear stories about what that person death has taught them about life and the living. When we are deep in grief we can’t see any lesson, we only feel the pain of our loss and that is… Continue reading

Letting Go After Loss

Letting Go After Loss

Letting Go Following a Mother’s Death

By the age of twelve, I knew what the word cancer meant. My mother had been diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer shortly after Mother’s Day in 1988. Her physicality had slowly deteriorated, and she returned home from the hospital a fragment of the woman she had once been. Chemotherapy thinned her hair, and her swollen legs prevented mobility. I did my best to keep out of sight because I didn’t want to be present when my mother drew her last breath and slipped from this world into the next.

I saw my mother for… Continue reading

Coping with Grief Following a Natural Disaster

Coping with grief following a natural disaster is hard and stressful.

Picture of Coping With Grief Following a Natural Disaster

You may associate grief only with the death of a loved one however, many people will have and continue to face grief from natural disasters such as we are experiencing in America with the wildfires and two major hurricanes. We have witnessed not only loss of life but deep grief at the loss of property, pets, jobs and the routine of everyday life.

When people experience any significant loss, they also experience grief. Grief is as human and inescapable as growing older. Those who experience loss from natural disasters… Continue reading

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