How do you know if someone is dead?
[Editor’s note] While it seems a little inappropriate to share, this article raises some good points. Many people think of death as black and white — you’re alive or you’re not — those of us who’ve been around death know it’s...
Crossing the bridge
When you are a caregiver, you are the guide for your loved one as they cross the bridge toward death. The world, with colors and noise swirling around, keeps tugging and pulling on you, wanting you to come back, but the labored last few breathes of your loved one...
Where Grief Takes Us: A Caregiver’s Journey Living with Loss
Somehow I knew I had to walk through that grief. I couldn’t work it away, or ignore it, or pretend it wasn’t there.
Mortality, Loss, and Finding Peace
Dealing with the loss of a loved one is emotional torture. It can be wretched. Almost violent in its disruption especially when loss comes as a surprise. Death can be insufferable for those who are left behind and therefore mortality as a topic is generally...
Why talking about death is an act of love
The only parent-child conversation more excruciating than the birds and the bees is the death talk. In a fantasy world, our parents would record their end-of-life wishes in a legal document and set aside a good chunk of change for funding. They would include a...
The final mystery: Death without diagnosis
When I asked the funeral home director about obtaining an autopsy for my mother, I was met with a long, uncomfortable silence, as if I had asked about arranging a cannibal feast with my mom’s corpse as the main course. “Do you really want to do that,” he asked,...
Grief or relief, what is it?
“Carol, I’m so sorry about your dad,” people told me after he died. “I’m sure you miss him.” They were right. I missed him terribly. But, my dad had, effectively, died on an operating table ten years before. The man we just buried was my dad, yet not really. The pain...
My mom. She lived. She died. She’s here.
I’m not good with talking about my emotions publicly, openly, and without hesitation. I’m not good at feeling angry or upset or confused. I’m not good at knowing that my life is changed forever. What I am good at, though, is realizing that just because my life is...
Why Are We in Denial About Death?
Physicians and family members must find the courage and compassion to talk about dying before it’s too late.
Understanding Anticipatory Grief in Caregiving
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” -C.S. Lewis
A Memorial for the Living: Don’t Wait to Celebrate Your Loved One’s Life
How many times have you sat in a memorial service and thought, “I only wish that he (or she) could be here to take all of this in”?
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