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.
Just Breathe
“Just breathe and everything will be okay. This is not the time to burst into tears.” I took another deep breath before placing my balmy hand on the ice-cold handle of room 0701. I slightly open the door to peek in and The somberness from the room immediately overtakes my body. The smell of used garments mixed with the stale air makes it even harder not to cry. I hear groaning from the room next door and screams from down the hall. The IV in the room continues to beep as it checked my Nana’s vitals. A single tear falls from my left eye. I open the door a little more and the shadow cast from the bed falls over my face. “Perfect. So they won’t see my tears,” I thought before entering the room.
By Jaide Wyatt 5 years ago in Families
Fate
July 15, 2015, Calcutta (Kolkata), India Sutopa just got back from the nursing home. Her face was overburdened with feelings - crestfallen, etiolated, petrified, qualmish, and stupefied. It was 1 p. m. She thought of informing her husband, who was at work, but she hesitated. Over the last few weeks, she was feeling torpid and looking wan. As advised by many she went to visit the doctor. Dr. Nag was reputed and it took three weeks to get the appointment. Even though the doctor was good at her craft, she directed her to carry out several tests from blood to Colonoscopy. Today her MRI test report was to be delivered and she went to the nursing home to collect it. Sutapa was a devoted homemaker. Even with such weakness, she performed all her duties, obedient to habit. The last few days have been hectic for her because of the medical tests. That could not hinder her dedication though she could not stick to her routine with the kind of precision she has been categorically associated with.
By abhidipta mallik5 years ago in Families
A Childhood Memory
One night my sister and I heard our parents fighting through our bedroom wall into the living room. To us this was a typical fight that we heard occasionally through our bedroom wall, but this one was quite different than the other arguments. We heard my mom telling my dad, “I want a divorce from you, I am done.” Those words will always circle and live in my brain. My sister and I being young kids, we didn’t understand what she really meant when she said she wanted a divorce. My dad and mom were sitting in our living room surrounding our fireplace. My sister, Lynette and I had our ears pressed up and glued to one of the side walls in our bedroom so that we could listen to their conversation. The night went by as my sister, and I had laid in our bed staring up at the ceiling in total silence. By far, that was the longest night I have ever been awake through. I didn’t want the time to keep going, I didn’t want the sun to rise. I didn’t want to have to deal with a new reality, so even though I was awake staring at the ceiling most the night I also didn’t feel like I was there in a way. It felt like an out of body experience, even though as a child I didn’t know what those words meant. I knew something was wrong, the tone was different, the way they talked to each other was different. It was all so very different that my brain knew something was wrong and going to be different, at that moment I really had no clue what our reality was going to look like.
By Christina Hansen5 years ago in Families
No Money, No Insurance, No Life
Marcus was almost in tears as he hung up the phone. The moment seemed to linger in his head as he could not comprehend the words he had just heard. How could this be? It did not seem possible and he prayed he would awaken to find this was just a bad dream. The news he had just heard replayed in his head like it was on a continuous loop, not stopping but only growing louder. The voice on the other end of the line confirmed Marcus's identity and introduced himself as the county coroner in Colorado. What came next left Marcus in sadness and disbelief. The man spoke in a low tone and Marcus could hear the apprehension in his voice as he said " your father was found deceased today in his Colorado home." The coroner went on with a somber tone in his voice as he explained the circumstances surrounding the death of his father. His father was a widower who lived alone in a small cabin, in a small mountain town in Colorado. Not being able to afford health insurance he constantly struggled with high blood pressure and heart disease. Marcus's step mom had passed away five years earlier from kidney disease that had turned critical and terminal due to alcohol abuse and no health insurance to better manage her ailment. At fifty five she passed. His father was only sixty two but had the health of someone twenty years his senior.
By Robert Dean Green5 years ago in Families
Discounted Feelings
Once you step back and see the illusion for the illusion it is, you don’t see that illusion again. Next! Come on, Bebe, stop crying. That’s not helping anything,” he said with a disgusted expression that hurt more than the stinging tears. “Will you try to stop crying!” I knew it wasn’t a question; it was a command, like all of his commands. He never blatantly said things to make you think he was a control freak and I never blatantly said out loud that that’s what was going on. True to form, he had left after yet another failed attempt to talk me out of divorcing him. The divorce I didn’t want either, but knew I had to process to get my life back. I had to move beyond the life he dominated for over eighteen years, the life where he promised to protect us. It had all come crashing down. I had to get Ryan and myself to safety. It wasn’t that he ever physically hit us. What he had managed to do for the past eighteen years was far more devastating than any physical blows. Even Ryan was completely surprised when he finally put the pieces together. “I thought we had the perfect family. You and dad never yelled at each other, you never cursed at each other and I never saw you fighting.”
By Beverly Love5 years ago in Families
Summer of the Spiders
When the Japanese cremate a dead body, they leave the bones. We learned this when we were stationed at a military base in Japan, and Mom died. She’d loved Japan so much and wanted a traditional Japanese cremation, and even though the base chaplain warned Dad that it wouldn't be like in America where they char the bones down to dust, Dad said, that’s okay. It’s the way she would have wanted it.
By Nikki Bennett5 years ago in Families
Loving and Losing.
Moshe ben Yitchak. (Michael Saul Zartz)I have no other way to write this but straight from the heart. My son and firstborn enterd the world kicking and screaming, and throughout his life, all he did was make others happy, laugh, or want to murder him. Figuratively speaking. True.
By WriterS.InK Inc. (Sandy Groyer)5 years ago in Families
Christmas: The afterglow effect
Christmas afterglow I began taking note of something that happened each year beginning the day after Christmas. I now refer to it as the "afterglow" effect of the holiday. At first, I thought it might take place because a lot of people took down their trees and decorations and there was less demand for electricity. I first noticed this effect as a teenager and have seen it continue through the decades.
By Cheryl E Preston5 years ago in Families
The First Christmas
THE FIRST CHRISTMAS Patrice leaned on the counter in her tiny kitchen. The light was dim, which suited her mood. Everything she needed was out on the counter; the mixer, the recipe, butter, flour, sugar…everything. Everything was there but her mom. Tears blinded Patrice’s eyes as she picked up the old, stained recipe for her mother’s special Christmas cookies. “Louisa’s Christmas Delights… Patrice had baked these cookies many times with her mom in her childhood home, music playing, wine flowing. She had always been the one to help with the holiday baking. And now her siblings were looking to Patrice to bring the cherished cookies to the first Christmas without their mother.
By Mary Richards5 years ago in Families
