Death of a Child

How We Heal After the Death of a Child

Monday, April 22, 2024

The death of a child is so profound, it’s like no other loss. There’s no such thing as getting over the death of a child. Instead, bereaved parents must learn to adapt to a new life without our child’s physical presence. It’s part of the long, slow process of healing after the death of a child. Devastating Pain If you’re never fully healed after a child’s death, how can you gauge your healing progress? The intense pain after my 4-year-old daughter’s death felt devastating and unbearable. The most common question from newly bereaved parents in child loss support groups is […]

Bereavement, Death of a Child, Open to Hope

About Your Room: Letting Go of a Son’s Belongings

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Dismantling the Room Your blue camo backpack hung on the back of your desk chair with your Pittsburgh Penguins baseball cap on top of it for eight years. It was as you left it on the last day of school before the Christmas holidays in 2012. It was September 2020; I was in your room with a mug of dark roast and my phone. We had decided to replace the wall-to-wall carpeting upstairs. The installers were coming the next day and I was on deadline. Both Dad and Iz were out of town. The task of dismantling your room came […]

Bereavement, Open to Hope, Other Losses

Comic Yisrael Campbell on Uplifting the Dying

Saturday, August 23, 2014

comic Yisrael Campbell

How can you use your talents to make the dying feel like they’re at the center of your universe? Be a DJ on a pretend radio station with your friend’s name in the call letters: this idea and more when memory artist Nancy Gershman speaks with Yisrael Campbell (born Chris Campbell): a comedian of Irish and Italian descent, who grew up Catholic in Philadelphia and now lives with his wife and four kids as an Orthodox Jew in Israel. The star and writer behind the critically acclaimed Off Broadway show “Circumcise Me,” Yisrael brings his one-man show to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival August 2014. […]

Death of a Grandparent

Playwright Taren Sterry Finding the Funny in Sadness

Monday, August 4, 2014

Playwright Taren Sterry

Taren Sterry is a comedic actress and playwright who also teaches improv, presentation coaching, public speaking and team building. She is a full time manager of Volunteer Training at Visiting Nurse Service of NY Hospice and Palliative Care. Her nationally acclaimed one-woman show, 180 Days, is about her first six months working in hospice. Visit Taren at www.tarensterry.com and www.180daysplay.com. Finding the funny when your option is profound sadness Restage awful memories as comedy to alter the past Everyone, even a sourpuss, can notice one positive thing Not even those in the business are immune from death Compassionate listening deepens any relationship Close mindedness isn’t permanent […]

Death of a Child

A Mama Finds Memories in a Duplo Box

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

In my closet sits one duplo box filled with handwritten cards.  The cards were for my little boy Daniel.  The boy is now gone, but the cards written to him still remain. When we moved from the house where Daniel lived, Daniel didn’t get to go with us.  But the yellow duplo box with cards did.  A few of the cards he’d received were after hs first surgery before we knew the lump in his neck was cancer. Most were sent to him during the months he was treated at UNC-Hospitals. The duplo box had been where he’d stored all […]

Death of a Spouse

The Irreverent Widow, Sandi Amorello on Young Widows with Kids in Tow

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sandi Amorello

What the bereavement support group dress code should be and why widows often say they’ve “thrown out the rule book”: this and more when memory artist Nancy Gershman talks to Sandi Amorello, humorist, artist, and author of The Irreverent Widow: Shockingly true tales of love, death and dating…with children in tow. Sandi is also founder of Girl Scout Dropout, (a membership-based alliance whose uplifting motto to women enduring challenges is ‘More support than an underwire bra’). To connect to other smart, rebellious, witty women averse to uniforms and support groups, make sure to visit sandiamorello.com. The humor gene: are you one of the Haves or […]

Death of a Child

The Fear of Forgetting

Friday, July 12, 2013

Since my daughter died just after turning four years old, one of my biggest fears has been that she will be forgotten. But lately, I’ve been asking myself: What does that really mean? What am I really scared of? The idea that she will be forgotten is actually two separate fears. The first is that due to the notion of “out of sight, out of mind,” friends and even family will stop thinking of her and, in essence, “forget her”. In reality, this is the natural course of life. I have beloved relatives and dear friends who have passed, and […]

Open to Hope

Reconstructing Memories After the Loss of a Loved One

Monday, June 4, 2012

Did you know that your memories are not like a hard drive in your mind? Memories go through a process of reconstruction every time we conjure them. When we remember something our nerve paths fire as if a fresh experience is occurring. And, memories can be amended, even added to! New information can come forward that might have been in the receding areas of your awareness. Many grieving people worry over forgetting their loved ones. Take this concern and actively work with it. I thought I might share a couple unusual ideas (aside from just looking at photos or reading […]