Death of a Child

Reminiscing…

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

by Sandy Fox What would my life have been like if my daughter were alive today? I often think of that question and ponder on the answers. I envision all sorts of scenarios. Marcy and her husband would be giving lots of parties. They were both involved in the Hollywood scene and were meeting lots of new people in 1994 when she died. Marcy knew how much I liked Barry Manilow, so back in 1992 when she found out that as part of her job, she was in charge of a reception he was singing at, she invited me to […]

Death of a Spouse, Special Topics, Your Grief

Caregivers: Be Gentle With Yourselves

By Karla Wheeler When someone we love is terminally ill, it can be the most challenging time in our lives physically, emotionally, socially, and even spiritually. But if we can learn to be gentle with ourselves, newfound energy awaits us on all levels. GO GENTLY. GO GENTLY. This became my mantra, the phrase that kept running through my brain when my 54-year-old husband of 30 years was dying of cancer. I’d be stuck in traffic, late for an important doctor’s appointment about Gerry’s latest x-rays or CT scans. My heart would pound as I willed the stoplight to turn green, […]

Special Topics

Horror of Pregnancy Loss Inspires Mother to Grow

Monday, March 30, 2009

By Suzanne Schafer – My husband and I lost a baby during the middle of my pregnancy. From the first moment the doctor told me, with a deep, pained look on his face, that our baby had passed away, I felt grave sorrow in my heart which surged down to my core. Shortly after this shattering moment, the doctor informed us that the safest way to remove our baby was to go to an abortion clinic. As those words slipped from his lips, my heart seized and my body gasped for air. The alternatives, he explained, were too dangerous and […]

Death of a Child, Special Topics, Your Grief

Woman Overwhelmed by Series of Major Losses

Hannah writes in:  I buried my only son last year. But my story starts way before that. He was a Marine, he left as soon as he graduated. He did two tours in Iraq and came home in 2005. In July of 2006 he went to work for someone that I went to grade school and high school with. He got a beijing job working for a private security company stationed in Kuwait. I last saw him in October of 2006 when he came home for two weeks to attend his friend’s wedding. We spent about 10 days together. It […]

Death of a Child, Special Topics, Your Grief

Comfort

by Sandy Fox Time heals…she is in a better place…she is still with you…you should exercise every day…there, now, don’t you feel better? No, I don’t, and neither do you if you have lost a child. Our grief is with us always and there is nothing that will make it go away or make us forget. We will always be devastated, but eventually we learn to live again. In her newest book, Comfort, Ann Hood takes us on a journey with her 5-year-old daughter, Grace, who died suddenly from strep throat, a journey for Hood that will no doubt last […]

Death of a Child

Mentioning Deceased Child’s Name is a Gift to Mom

by Sandy Fox — I often think of an afternoon stage production I attended with five friends because it confirms to me that my child lives on in other hearts as well as mine. While waiting on line to get in to the production, I saw an old aquaintance whose chidren knew my daughter Marcy. The mother, Yetta, and her son Mark were there to see the production also. Mark’s wife wrote it and stars in it. After saying hello to Yetta, I was introduced to her son. “Mark, this is Sandy Fox. Do you remember Sandy’s daughter, Marcy Finerman? […]

Death of a Parent, Special Topics

Fried Clams and Healing

Sunday, March 29, 2009

By Eric Tomei — One of the reasons I love my job is that we talk about food all the time. If we are not talking about food, we are eating food, planning to eat food, or wishing people would bring in food. Today at the health clinic, one of our patients was talking about fried clams, and she said that the reason that she ate them was to bond and connect with her Dad. It turns out that he had loved fried clams. Immediately, I began thinking of how many experiences I had with my dad that were similar […]

Death of a Child

Springtime…cleaning and remembering

Saturday, March 28, 2009

by Sandy Fox Springtime. A time to clean house, clean the yard, and, as I do so, just another season to think about my daughter and how much I miss her. She has been gone now for 15 years. I clean the house, glancing at the boxes in my closet of what is left of her life. It is compacted into a small corner of the closet. There is not much. Some award, some writings, some childhood items, all the lovely notes and remembrances from others, and most of all, the photos. Photos that are worth a thousand words, a […]

Death of a Child

Surviving the suicide of my child

By Terrye Harris On December 13, 2004, my world shattered into a million pieces. After a 2 year long battle with schizophrenia, my youngest son, Jonathan took his own life at the age of 19. The day Jonathan died, I kept telling myself this is the worst day of my life. Little did I know through the haze of shock that surrounded me,that there would be many more worse days to follow. The first six months, it was all I could do to keep breathing. During this time I believe I could have actually laid down and willed myself to […]

Death of a Spouse, Special Topics

Natasha Richardson’s Family Donates Her Organs, Honors Her Life

By Reg Green — Natasha Richardson’s heart-wrenching death from a skiing accident should explode at least one myth: that donating the organs of a loved one is in some way disrespectful. It’s clear that her family made their decision out of love and that, by helping others, her stature has been enhanced not diminished. And that is true of all those other decisions to donate made by anonymous families in lonely hospital rooms around the world. They allow the doctors to take the body parts of someone they love, not because they don’t care any more but because they feel […]