4 months after Todd died, I was talking to a friend who develops websites about starting a blog about my experiences. She was supportive but asked me to consider if I wanted to be defined in the public eye as ...
National Grief Awareness Day reminds us that each of us who has experienced life-changing loss grieves in valid, non-linear, and unique ways. National Grief Awareness Day serves to bring awareness to a world that often prefers to push away uncomfortable ...
How many times have you heard: “You are so strong!”? Or seen memes that compliment a widow’s strength, like this one: “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have”? I didn’t realize ...
I didn’t come into your lives early enough to have a hand in raising you, and at times it probably seemed that I only came to steal away your dad’s heart from you or crowd you out from your seat ...
I can’t imagine trying to choose a headstone or a casket in the trauma that comes with death. I have great respect for people who are able to think clearly enough to make those choices. I wasn't ready. In fact, ...
A previous blog described how one of my former students gifted me with a selection of her homemade jams. What I left out of the story was my initial reaction to the package: I couldn’t open it. I had looked ...
As I write this, more than 57,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, and the number of Americans grieving for each other grows exponentially. In a country that compartmentalizes death to funeral homes and then largely ignores the entire topic, the ...
Last week, a former student of mine messaged me from across the country and asked how I was doing. AND, she wanted to send me some of her homemade jam (or marmalade--she’s going to surprise me). How am I doing? ...
I wrote drafts for this blog at the end of February and beginning of March, but nothing I wrote then is relevant now. The world has changed completely. I am on high alert. I am supposed to be telecommuting, teaching ...
A dream can tint my entire day. I’ve never had trouble remembering them either, and if I have time, I write them down. But, before this week, I rarely dreamt of Todd--maybe once a month. So many nights, I have ...