Recently, my son celebrated his 16th birthday. The sixth one without his father. Birthdays are now so bittersweet. I hated that he had to celebrate his birthday in quarantine. So we arranged for friends to line our sidewalk and ...
"I'm sure things will get easier after this first year." I'll take "Phrases that Aren't Helpful" for $1,000, Alex. When my husband died, I suddenly became surrounded by people who thought they knew all there was to know about navigating ...
Mother’s Day. It’s a special day that can be a grief trigger. One where I count my blessings and at the same time feel sorrow for what’s missing. A bittersweet day. As most holidays are now. This year ...
It’s the beginning of my eighth week of isolation - quarantining during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a beautiful sunny day in Michigan. I can finally see summer around the corner! My mood is as sunny as the day, because I’m ...
Today is National Widow's Day. And unfortunately, I am a member of that club. A club I never wanted to join. But I am surrounded by some of the strongest men and women I know. We support each other. Lift ...
One of my favourite inspirational speakers is a child psychologist named Dr. Jody Carrington. She speaks of the importance to connect to our community of friends and family. We are wired to do hard things, but those hard things are ...
If I had stayed home as much a year ago as I am now because of the pandemic, people would have been concerned. Is she becoming a hermit? Is she home moping? I remember being asked if I was getting ...
Living without him. This is something I'm still grappling with after all this time. Shortly after Mike died I remember thinking, "We're all so young. I still have so many years ahead of me, God-willing. How am I going to ...
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 ...
Widowhood has multiple challenges. Being widowed while solo parenting is one of those difficulties. Parenting teens is super easy… said no parent ever. Today’s teens face more complexities in their lives than their parents did when they were teenagers. Parenting ...