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 Shirt I'll Never Wear
If you're a Netflix junky like me, you'll casually go to the section that previews new movies and shows to add them to your "Watch Later" list. One show that I was excited to watch was Worn Stories; it's a limited series that focuses on our emotional attachment to specific items of clothes. From sweaters, hats, ties, and even jockstraps, people talk about why that item means and the emotional impact. It amazed me how much we idolize the things that we have. We've all become hoarders in our own right, which is why most American's want bigger and better to fit everything inside. Some of the items we possess bring nostalgia.
By teisha leshea5 years ago in Families
The recurring death. Top Story - April 2021.
The death of any loved one is difficult and healing can be hindered by simply taking care of business. I vaguely experienced this with my mother and my grandmother but it's almost unbearable now that my husband has died. We spent 45 years together which is 5 years shy of being half a century. He has only been gone about 3 weeks but it feels like an eternity. Each time I believe I am having a good day something happens that causes me to feel as if he has just died all over again. It feels like smooth sailing and then waves crashing down over and over again taking my breath away before they subside.
By Cheryl E Preston5 years ago in Families
Dinner for Two
He saw her for the first time from the patio. She wore one of those flowery dresses that signal spring and absolutely simmer in the brutality of Florida’s July high season. She was just standing, staring out across the green-blue horizon, gazing upon the eternities and follies of life that tiptoe that dark mirage known as the future. He gripped the white metal rail of the balcony, listening to the heady gusts whistling between the rusted welds and jittering steel.
By Aaron Steele5 years ago in Families
My Marilyn
Dearest Marilyn, May this letter find you in a better place than last we saw each other. I miss you terribly, yet I know it was inevitable that we part. For these past two years, I thought I would be the first to go. I prepared for it. The suddenness of your leaving left me in the deepest despair I have ever felt. Only now, a few weeks since, I have just barely emerged from that black pit of anguish. With this letter I am trying to deal with a future without you, to grasp what it means not to be able to see you, hold you, talk to you, love you.
By Edward Farber5 years ago in Families
The Mom I'm About to Lose
I was 31 years old with a 3 month old baby in my arms sitting on a coffee table in my parents living room when I found out my mom had brain cancer. We didn't know at the time that it was terminal but somehow, we knew. Weeks later when we would learn that the life we had before was over and this new life would be full of pain and sorrow, my mind began searching for every memory of her I could hold onto.
By Trish Felecos5 years ago in Families
An Ode to my First Supporter
I’ve been working on my PhD in Biomedical Sciences for the past 3 and a half years. It’s been some of the most rewarding and tumultuous years of my life. I have been working in the lab of my dreams on neuromuscular degenerative diseases. The scientists and friends I’ve made along the way have continued to motivate me and support me through all of life’s hardballs, but they weren’t my first support group. My family and community from northern Maine were the first to develop my wonder and work ethic which culminated into my dream of becoming a scientist. This is where the tumultuous part comes in. In the last year, I lost 3 grandparents. In February of 2020, I lost my older brother to a freak flu that led to sepsis and brain damage. I have also lost several loved ones from my community who nurtured me and allowed me to grow.
By Sarah Holbrook5 years ago in Families
Let It Go
Dear Jean, I was riding in the car with your son, my husband and happened to look behind the seat and see two of the bags that I had given him on two separate mornings. You know I heat up breakfast for him and give him a bag with a muffin or fruit, and or some sort of snack. You told me to make sure my husband doesn’t go hungry; I also make sure he has something either during the day or on his way home. What are these two bags? I give him a face and ask, “what is this?” He just looks at me.
By Deirdre Simmons5 years ago in Families
Learning to Live on
A son should know his father. This is a statement I have heard many times in my life. I’ve heard it and read it in fiction and it has been said to me as intended advice. Of course, any child should know their father. That first sentence doesn’t ignore this, instead it relates it to the person hearing the message. I’ve also heard it said that a daughter should know her father. I do think a better way to express it is to use the word child. Regardless, if it is possible and safe and healthy for a child to do so, they should know their father (and mother, of course). My perspective is as an only child, but I know that siblings can have very different images of their father. I cannot address that. I know it is true, but I have no direct experience.
By Tom Stasio5 years ago in Families
My Sister Killed me
My sister and I never got on, from a very early age she had issue with me, as a child I understood that it was probably the five years difference between us and that this was how older children treated one another. I think its safe to say I was abused by my sister in a variety of ways probably best not discussed in this forum. There were systematic weird attacks sometimes just for the sake of it, sometimes to cause me extreme hurt both mentally and physically. From framing me for things I never did, to just attacking me to make me cry, my young years were a continual turmoil of abuse at the hands of the very person who I later understood should really have been protecting me.
By Spencer Hawken5 years ago in Families
