When a friend tells you their mom or their husband has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia how do you react? It’s one of the worse diagnoses anyone can receive so knowing what to say in that moment is so difficult. You want to say the right thing and you’re terrified … Read more
When someone you love has passed away a prayer card is a small keepsake that family friends will want to hold onto for years. They’re usually handed out at the funeral, wake or memorial service and people will keep them in their bedside drawer or Bible so they can come back and look at them … Read more
When you’re arranging a funeral you’re already dealing with a lot. There’s so many things to do. And so it’s ways to forget you have to put together the funeral program. It feels small next to everything else, but that booklet is the keepsake people fold up and tuck in their drawer for years. So … Read more
When you lose a friend its hard to put into words how it feels. They’re someone that knew you in a way nobody else did. They’re the person you had inside jokes with, late night phone calls, the one you texted first when something good or something awful happened, shared the food and bad times. … Read more
A birthday when the person whose day it is isn’t here anymore can be tough. It’s a day you probably want to skip over if you’re honest. And you wake up with this strange feeling of wanting to celebrate them and aching that you can’t. The first birthday I faced after losing someone close to … Read more
Heartbreak isn’t only experienced with losing a loved one or funerals. In fact it’s a type of loss that isn’t even acknowledgment much by the wider world. When an adoption falls through the person grieving has lost a child they were already loving and planning for. They had pictures of them at the dinner table … Read more
Hospice nurses do something most of us couldn’t even imagine doing. They sit with the dying and comfort them when they’re frightened. Somehow they can cope with the weight of all that and not let it overwhelm them. So when the time comes to thank one of them you can feel a bit lost. How … Read more
When the funeral is over you usually realize it’s the funeral home staff that are the people who carried you through the worst of it. At the time you feel like you’re doing it all but then when it’s through how much all the staff contributed becomes apparent. The director who answered your calls at … Read more
Missing someone who’s in heaven doesn’t ever go away. Over time it will lessen and some days you’ll find it’s not with you as much. But then a song plays or you smell their perfume on a stranger and it all comes rushing back. I’ve found that putting words to that feeling helps. Even just … Read more
When a baby dies there are no words that feel enough. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances were – an early loss in pregnancy, a stillbirth or a baby who only got to stay a little while – the grief and overwhelming sadness that comes from it is unimaginable. I’ve sat with friends in silence … Read more