grief

Losing a family member is one of the most traumatic life events; Families must support one another to endure the five stages of grief and get through it together.

The Way It Should Be
October 31st, 2013. Where is he? I glance down the memory-drenched hall every few seconds in expectation. I smile to myself. For one so obsessed with managing, I ponder, he is not punctual. I stop and take a step back from rearranging the table, festively decorated with candy corn and cinnamon-scented candles tied with jute. I take a deep breath. I feel like I never get to see you anymore, and it takes events like this for your work to let you go early to help your family. I push my hair out of my face and let out a small giggle. You love it when I curl my hair. I can't wait for you to see it.
By Isabella Tittle6 years ago in Families
Shattered Beneath It All
My brother passed away August 2019 and it wasn't until then that I realized I was broken. While that hurts me to acknowledge it's something I've had to come to terms with and accept. This was the reality that lied beneath.
By Kaci J.6 years ago in Families
A Daughter's First Love
I lost my father on December 10th, 2018, 14 days before my birthday, and two months and one day after his. I began telling the story the day he was diagnosed with cancer as a means to process the news, and saved it to go back to visit. Before I could work on it the next day, he lost his fight, and it would be ten months before I would be strong enough to complete it (Find Part 1 here). This will tell the story of his last days.
By Angela Brigance-Vance6 years ago in Families
The Alley
Cigarette smoke billowed and followed AC drafts from the ceiling above, searing the eyes of children and seniors alike. Whirling electronic sounds escaped the murmuring machines, as teenagers to the next lane appeared to be having the time of their lives—perhaps even the highlight of their lives. We devoured the pitchers of beer, to stomach the onslaught of laughter and those crackling, cacophonous sounds. Each strike, spare, or even gutter ball were announced to the lounge, as if the bowling alley had transformed into an arcade on steroids. Laughter penetrated any reflection of what had transpired two nights ago. Velda, Joshua, and his girlfriend could not help but notice my existential unease—my detachment. In that moment, I realized this could not happen to my family, rather, time and space were illusions—manmade constructs to ease the understanding of physics, to laymen and scholars alike. I felt somewhere—somehow—Ella was with me. I could still smell her locks of hair. I heard her call my name from the back of the alley. She was there. She had never truly left—or so I would not accept.
By Joseph Webb6 years ago in Families
Retail Therapy in a Necklace (or Two)
A couple months after my hysterectomy, a mom at the park casually asked me how many kids I want to have. It was too soon, I had no quippy answer prepared to shrug off the question, and it caught me off guard. I ended up telling her everything that happened to me, and she reciprocated with stories of her own postpartum experiences. I am grateful for sisterhood, motherhood, personhood. Grateful to wear the marks of what it took to bring my children into this world. Grateful to be surrounded by supportive people who make space for me to express my hurt and confusion out loud.
By Jessica Grace Raso6 years ago in Families
A Girl's First Love...
Yesterday was a day I will never forget. My dad had been in and out of the hospital over the last few weeks for having his blood sugar going from dangerously high to plummeting dangerously low as we introduced insulin. It was so hard to get regulated it seemed, and adding to the stress was the fear of every dose of insulin given, he could end up in hypoglycemic shock. I was wearing out. We finally got it regulated, and I felt like I could breathe again.
By Angela Brigance-Vance7 years ago in Families
You Left Me in the Dark
It happened at night. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to say goodbye one last time; I'm sorry you were alone in that small, cold bed that wasn't even yours, taking your last breath tucked in pitiful white sheets.
By Eleonora ༄7 years ago in Families
Loss
Part 1: Growing Up Growing up with a sick parent really takes away from what most people would call a “normal” childhood. It didn’t make my childhood bad, though. I used to play outside with my neighbor's kids and we’d ride bikes. All activities that “normal” kids did. However, back in the house was when things stopped being so “normal”. When I was three, my mom was diagnosed with colon cancer, this eventually ended up spreading into breast cancer, then into lung cancer. Her illnesses eventually became terminal, and my parents both knew it was only a matter of time. Sometimes she’d have to lay on the kitchen table so my dad could pump her lungs before we went out of the house. Watching that process was always really unnerving, especially for a four or five year old child. Both my mom and dad tried really hard to make sure we had good memories with my mom before she passed. We went to Disney, we would go out for ice cream on fridays, and she’d help me with my homework. I do have a lot of good memories with my mom, and that’s something I’m so grateful for. However, the sicker she got, the less she was able to do with us; it got to the point where she wasn’t able to put us to bed anymore. We’d have to go into her room and kiss her goodnight, she’d give my sister and I each a stuffed animal she had been cuddling with all day so it would be “filled with love” by the time bedtime came around. This was the normal for my childhood, and it’s something that I’ll remember for a while.
By Rachael7 years ago in Families
Lose
There are many kinds of losses, from losing a shoe or a phone but in worst cases, a loss is losing someone, maybe a friend through an argument or a death in your family.
By Rosa Online7 years ago in Families
How to Deal with the Anniversary of a Loved One's Death
March 11 marks the first anniversary of my son’s (Donivin) passing. My family misses him. As a mother, I think of him daily wherever I go. A trigger of memories, i.e., a glimpse of moments of the good, the sad, and the challenging ones—feeling the emotion of embracing the memories, grief, and the continuing of healing forward.
By Grace KOSTAMO7 years ago in Families
Simply My Life 2
I am stalling. I have known since I finished the first chapter what comes next in this story. I cannot tell any more of my life without this chapter. So much of who I am, who I became, was influenced by the events in this part of my life. And I do not want to write it. It will open up a part of my heart that, even 30 years later, I can't handle emotionally. It involves the single most devastating loss I have ever experienced. But as I said, I can't tell any more of my story without it. I have tried to come up with a way to tell other things first, and I probably could fill up some pages with fluffy good memories. I could entertain you with my childhood. But those aren't the things that have shaped my story.
By Jenn Pautsch7 years ago in Families
Hello, Welcome to Grief
Hello all! I want to start writing a chain of articles dealing with how we handle grief and bereavement in this crazy world today; it's an inevitable fact that as humans we will all die eventually. I'm sorry to be blunt, but it's just something that we will all have to deal with. When I was 20 years old, I was thrown into this select group of kids who have lost a parent before they're old enough to rent a car. No one tells you what it's going to be like after one or more of your parents leaves the planet, but if I can drive one thing home, it's that through death there is life. Death is a natural game changer in our lives, and there is truth in that through death there is rebirth, so I would like introduce myself by sharing my experience with death.
By Megan Beers7 years ago in Families