Karla Wheeler

For 20 years, Karla Wheeler has been an expert in hospice care and grief support - both personally and professionally. A former newspaper reporter and editor, Karla is the founder of Quality of Life Publishing Company, an independent firm dedicated to helping hospices provide their compassionate care to terminally ill patients and their families. Her company publishes clinical newsletters for hospices to educate area doctors and nurses about the many advantages of referring patients to hospice. The periodical Quality of Life Matters® is now in its 11th year and is recommended as an educational resource by top medical organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Her firm also publishes a growing family of grief and other self-help books, including three written by Karla. Afterglow: Signs of Continued Love is a compilation of stories of comforting coincidences from those who grieve. Timmy’s Christmas Surprise and Heart-Shaped Pickles are popular resources for grieving children. Karla’s grief support columns have been published widely in newspapers via Scripps Howard News Service. Her articles about grief in the workplace have appeared in business/management newspapers, magazines, and newsletters across North America. Karla was a guest on the radio show, “Healing the Grieving Heart,” in October 2008, where she shared insights into hospice care in America. To hear her show with Dr. Gloria & Dr. Heidi Horsley, go to the following link: https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/33896/hospice-end-of-life-issues Thanks to hospice, five members of Karla’s immediate family have been able to die with dignity and free of pain, including her 54-year-old husband, who was diagnosed with advanced cancer “out of the blue” in late 2006 and died a month later. Other loved ones who were blessed with hospice care include Karla’s mother, father, father-in-law, and grandmother. It was after her grandmother experienced what Karla calls “a beautiful death” in 1987 that Karla knew she would someday dedicate her journalism career to helping families understand that no one needs to die in pain - physically, emotionally or spiritually. Hospice professionals help to ease pain on all levels. Karla and her teenage daughter travel nationwide to speak about death, dying, hospice care, and grief. Jenny is the author of a teen-to-teen grief support book, Weird Is Normal When Teenagers Grieve, based on her experiences and observations following her father’s death when she was 14 years old.

Articles:

Jenny Wheeler: Reassuring Grieving Teens

Author Jenny Wheeler talks about losing her dad when she was a teenager. She wrote Weird is Normal When Teenagers Grieve to help other teenagers struggling with their own losses. She encourages teens and anyone who’s experienced a loss to connect with the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), which hosts an annual conference. Wheeler was a speaker at the 2011 event and has found that connecting with others, especially when you’re a teen, can be a great tool for healing. Empathy is something everyone needs, but as a teen it can be tough to reach out. She lost […]

Staying Open to Signs of Continued Love

Karla Wheeler and her daughter, Jenny Wheeler, share with the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) their story of loss and healing. How can you stay connected with a loved one who has died? Jenny’s grandparents/Karla’s parents have both passed away. Additionally, Karla’s husband and Jenny’s father died a few years ago. The mother-daughter team has gone on to write several articles and books on the subject of grief, and they are now in-demand speakers around the country. They founded Quality of Life Publishing to help publish and spread stories of loss to readers around the world. A sign […]

‘Happy’ Holidays? Not for the Newly Bereaved

This holiday season, an estimated one in 20 Americans will be grieving the loss of someone dear. And for some bereaved folks, the loss is so profound in their lives that they shudder at the thought of celebrating anything, especially a season that is supposed to be merry and jolly. If you are dreading the upcoming holiday season because your loved one has died, please take a deep breath. Help is on the way. Know that your feelings are normal and there are a number of things you can do to ensure you and your family will get through […]

Honoring a Mother Who Has Lost a Child

By Karla Wheeler — In every community there are mothers who need extra doses of TLC this Mother’s Day. I’m thinking of the mothers who are enduring that painful grieving experience, the loss of a son or daughter. As we go about our usual Mother’s Day activities, lavishing our moms with gifts or paying tribute to mothers who are no longer living, let’s take a moment to reach out to a mom we know who has lost a child through death. My father was a role model in this regard. His reverence for his mother, and all mothers, reached new […]

Mother’s Cheerful Dying Days

By Karla Wheeler If you did a double-take when you saw the word “cheerful” in the headline above, you’re not alone. I did the same thing when I began to proofread the first draft of this Mother’s Day article. I realize “cheerful” doesn’t seem like an appropriate adjective for describing someone’s dying days, not unless that person was a positive thinker who always saw the glass as half full – to overflowing – rather than half empty. That was my mother. There she lay during her last weeks of life, bedridden from the rapid advance of lung cancer, dependent on […]

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, […]