Tag: Bereavedparents
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Taboo
I have a very dear friend who I met through volunteering at a local thrift store. I serve on the board of a small nonprofit she established. Her credentials are impressive. She is an ordained pastor, a certified grief and marriage/family counselor. One of the several programs offered by her nonprofit is conducting grief workshops.…
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Absence
I’ve had a really hard time this week with writer’s block. I’ve sat down at my computer several times to write my blog post, and the words just wouldn’t come. I prayed for God to guide me. I looked through my list of post ideas. Nothing felt right. I blamed my fuzzy-brainedness on the nasty…
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Take Backs
I like to be in control. I’m a planner and detail oriented, so I feel comfortable taking a lead position. Because then I have control of what plan we follow and can ensure every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed. Of course, my being in control is a façade. There is so much…
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Better Than I Can
I’ve mentioned before that one of the devotionals I read each morning is Our Daily Bread. The devotional on Saturday, January 25th was titled “God’s Perfect Care” by Elisa Morgan. The prayer at the end of the piece said: Dear Father, please help me to trust you with my loved ones, knowing that You can…
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Replacements
This past October I had the opportunity to attend a retreat for bereaved mothers hosted by Melanie DiSimone. She is a writer, the leader and moderator of a Facebook group for bereaved parents entitled Heartache and Hope: Life After Losing a Child, author of a blog The Life I Didn’t Choose, and, most recently the…
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Happy? New Year
A fellow bereaved parent expressed surprise that the New Year hit her harder than Christmas did. She was prepared to be sad and emotional at Christmas, but she got through it okay. Instead, she found herself weeping on New Year’s Eve and waking up depressed the next morning. I commented that even almost eight years…
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Friends
I have commented more than once that one of the hardest things about losing my daughter was that I also lost a friend. Rachel was thirty years old when she died in a car accident just two months after her marriage. She and her older sister had very distinct personalities. Her sister liked to please…
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Not Prepared
One of the members of a bereaved parent Facebook page recently posted this passage. We Weren’t Prepared One minute you were here, the next, you were gone. There was no opportunity to say goodbye, to tell you we love you, one more time. We could not hug you, breathe you in or kiss your cheek.…
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Gap
Like most folks we took a group family photo after Thanksgiving dinner, and we probably will take another one Christmas day. I love random photos that capture people at their most real. Doing something they love, laughing uncontrollably, genuinely surprised, or in a pensive mood. The subject of the picture often feels like it isn’t…
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Light
The second Sunday in December is Worldwide Candle Lighting Day to honor the memory of children who have died. It started out specifically to commemorate children who died of cancer, but in 1997 The Compassionate Friends organization expanded it to include all children who left this world too soon. Families light a candle at 7:00…
A Light for My Path 