Harriet Hodgson
March 9, 2010 – 1:14 am | No Comment

Grief triggers – your deceased loved one’s birthday, the anniversary of your loss, and holiday festivities – are a recovery challenge. How will you respond? Will you continue to move forward with life or will …

Read the full Article »
Dealing with Grief

Death of a Child

Death of a Parent

Death of a Sibling

Death of a Spouse

Home » Dealing with Grief, Grief and the Holidays

I Buried My Husband on His Birthday – Christmas Day

Linda Della-Donna Submitted by Linda Della-Donna on May 8, 2008 – 2:25 pm

Founder and director of <a href="http://www.griefcase.net"Griefcase, a nonprofit organization, Linda Della Donna supports widows going through the grief process. Della Donna makes her... more

No Comment

I lost my husband right before Christmas and buried him on his birthday?Christmas Day. I still hurt so bad, that sometimes I really don?t want to live any more. I do believe that he visits me (things have happened that only he could?ve done) and my daughter is hurting badly, too. This Mother?s Day and Father?s Day are not going to be good.

I have to believe that he?d want me to be OK, but I?m just not there yet.

Drs. Gloria and Heidi Respond?

Dear Debbie,

We are so very sorry for you loss. Losing a loved one at anytime is hard and burying him on his birthday which is also Christmas Day?makes it even more painful for you. There is no good time.

It has been a very short time since his death and we encourage you to be gentle with yourself and not put epectations on your grief. I know this is easy?for us to say but hard to do when?your life has turned upside down.??Most of us have to take it one day at a time – sometimes one hour at a time, actually. Know that there is no time table for grief and no rules – each of us grieves in our own time and our own way. We encourage you to find a grief group in your area – your local hospice or hospital may be able to put you in contact with several.?You might even seek out a grief counselor to help you over the biggest hurdles in these early days.?You don’t say how old your daughter is but we recommend our book, Teen Grief Relief which can be helpful to children of any age. It is important, too, that you and your daughter talk with each other about your husband/dad and about your own feelings and grief.?This can be very healing for each of you.

You might find it helpful to listen to some of our archived?radio shows of Healing the Grieving Heart. You will find them at?http://thegriefblog.com/grief-grieving-death-of-a-child/?(or simply go to the first page of the blog and click Archived Radio Shows). We especially recommnd:?

April 17,?2008 – Healing After the Death of a Husband – Guest: Tammy Stoner and Creating memorial Gardens for Abandoned Children Guest: Elissa Davey

March 27, 2008 – Too Young to Be a Widow?- Guest: Beverly McManus?

December 20, 2007 – Getting Through the Holidays Without Your Spouse - Guest: Linda Della Donna

You might like to listen to our live broadcast on Thursday mornings at 9 a.m. Pacific Time. Today we will be talking with our guest about the healing power of music. You can get the broadcast on the first page of The Grief Blog by clicking just above the program announcement.?

Finding a grief group or someone that you can talk with is important. Even joining with us on the radio helps you feel that you are not alone. We have found?that the burden of grief seems lighter when it is not?carried alone.

We will post your letter and our response on The Grief Blog because we find that each letter touches the heart of someone else and helps them in their grief. We often read letters on the radio show as well so we encourage you to listen.

You have our deep condolences,

Drs. Gloria and Heidi

?

?

Popularity: 4% [?]

  • Share/Save/Bookmark
Tags: healing | husband | one day at a time | Grief and the Holidays | christmas day | Grief | Hospice | losing a loved one

Related posts

Leave a comment!

Comments RSS

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.

Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser.