July is bereaved parents awareness month—a time when the spotlight is on us to reach out to bereaved parents and their families. We are encouraged to listen to them without advising them…to offer a shoulder to cry on…to give a hug when appropriate and needed…to be there for the bereaved.  Bereaved parents are often trapped […]

In March 2011, Rita and Albert Chretien disappeared while driving from their home in Penticton, B.C., to a trade show in Las Vegas—their GPS has led them astray…onto a logging road. A group of hunters found Rita 49 days later in the couple’s Chevy Astro minivan that was stuck in the mud. Thirty pounds lighter, […]

My apologies to readers who have visited my Blog over the last week expecting to find new posts—I have not found the time (or more accurately, the desire) to write as I was dealing with an intense personal loss…that of my Father, plus the added sadness and stress of my mother’s health failing—now that her […]

Lou and Patricia DeMuro, both age 84, passed away on the same day, five hours apart, in two different locations in La Mesa after a 62-year marriage. The natives of Chicago enjoyed a fond companionship with each other, and neither wanted to live without the other. On the day before they died, their daughter Jan […]

Those who study the effects of stress on marriages report that the death of a parent can put a great strain on a good marriage (if there is an inability or unwillingness to communicate feelings, one partner is left feeling excluded from the life of the other), so pay particular attention to your spouse. Go […]

What I read in the newspaper headline wasn’t that alarming: “Toddler wiggled out of Mom’s arms” it said. But it was the story that made me cry because, as a mother having teenagers, I could relate to when my children were young—to imagine holding my 15-month-old infant and have him wiggle out of my grasp […]

“How is it that even 2 1/2 years after Henry’s death, the sound of his name brings me a smile and warms my heart? –Because he was a positive relationship in my life! “He was the sunshine to my soul. “He loved and cherished me…just as I did him. “And he left me with tons […]

I wish my child hadn’t died—I wish I had her back! Being a bereaved parent is not contagious so I wish you wouldn’t shy away from me—I need you now more than ever! I know that you think of me and pray for me and that my child’s death pains you too—I wish you would […]

To most of us it is incomprehensible that our children will die before we do—no matter what age they die (although the impact will be different)! (It is the order of nature to expect elderly people to die first. The death of a younger person disrupts this order.) If your friend is a parent who […]

People often say that they could never cope with the death of a child—but they can! Grieving for a child (whether an infant, teenager or an adult) is severe, complicated and long lasting (it often lasts for years and leaves the grievers fearing for their sanity—some people never reach the closure stage as in other […]