Crisis Support

Sometimes a memory, long since forgotten, will suddenly present itself, and when it happens you have to decide what to do with that memory. I suppose you can try to bury it deep inside, try to send it back to…
Read more

The burden is very great.  The pain is exceptional because you really feel that you are bearing it all alone.  Yes, you have other relatives, but being an only child intensifies the pain.  All your life you have not looked…
Read more

Abuse can have a funny affect on your self esteem. I, and most of my closest friends, were made fun of in school. Tormented in some cases, as I was through elementary and middle school. It stopped when I got…
Read more

Most of us have had a toxic relationship. Weather it be just a bad experience or abusive in one way or another, these relationships can change your life dramatically. To begin your healing, you need to get out of the…
Read more

Honestly, you have to know the type of person your friend is before helping them cope with their loss. I look back on the days between delivering my first son, who was stillborn at full term, and the funeral, and…
Read more

How ‘do’ you deal with the death of a loved one? How do we ever move on? How do you ever take true solace in the comforting words that tell you that your loved one is in a better place, feeling…
Read more

When considering abuse of any kind, the community awareness needs to be in place. Many times when there is abuse happening there are many secrets that are kept behind closed doors. The problem usually is the children who are a…
Read more

At the age of 49, I think about my childhood quite often. It makes me wonder why I always thought my childhood was like everyone else’s when in reality my childhood bore more signs of dysfunctional than it did functional….
Read more

“Dazed and Confused” How did I get here, I am drowning. Over a year ago, I started to date my doctor. I was not even attracted to this man. I thought he was gay, I real nerd. But I went…
Read more

Domestic violence impacts the victims in a number of ways, which are most often long term and involve both physical and mental health. Even though domestic violence is usually thought of as physical violence perpetrated against the victim, in many cases it…
Read more

I had loved Harvey for thirty-two or thirty-three years. He was my first and only lover, and was a wonderful husband – we had been extremely happy. Why then did I feel this way? I found I had feelings for…
Read more

Moving on after the lose of a loved one is one of the hardest things that life throws at us. My grandfather, whom i loved dearly, passed away in august. Although it was his time, it was still hard. I…
Read more

I’ve only had the opportunity to “say goodbye” to one person in my entire life. That was a nephew, who knew that his time was close the last time I visited him. My daughter and her children had come with…
Read more

Being somewhat of an armchair environmentalist for years I have to admit that though I’d silently dreamed of such a burial for myself, my first real knowledge that such eco friendly funerals even existed was from watching an episode of…
Read more

Understanding Grief and Loss in Children There are seasons in life that are more difficult than others, but it can be said that the harshest seasons of all are those that bring with them death. It matters not how death…
Read more

No one can honestly say that they are not afraid of dying – well, not unless they are in line for beatification.  Fear of the unknown is part of being human.  Though we cannot completely erase this fear, we can…
Read more

In general terms, sympathy is typically understood to be the emotions that one person feels for another when they are going through a particular experience.  For example, if one person is having a bad day, a second individual may be sad…
Read more

People who have lost a loved one to suicide are left in a cloud of grief, questions and even anger. There is so much that they look back and see clearly as warning signs that they missed along the way,…
Read more

Grieving is always a very personal process, but the magnitude of the sense of loss is always greater when the death is a sudden or unexpected one. The ability to say goodbye to a friend or loved one is an…
Read more

The stages of grieving are as follows: numbness, denial, anger/guilt, pining and yearning, depression and gradual acceptance of the death. The physical effects are: headaches, dizziness, a dry mouth, weakness, breathlessness, a feeling of tightness in the throat, or chest,…
Read more

In high school I sat next to a friend of mine at a funeral home after his father killed himself with a shot gun. A few years ago my dad told me that his cousin found his mother hanging by…
Read more

The loss of a loved one is one of he most stressful times in your life. Along with the grief, often comes the responsibility of handling the estate, which can be a challenging and daunting experience. Hopefully, there have been…
Read more

Funerals are difficult for everyone. It is often hard to know what to say or how to behave at the funeral. These days, funeral etiquette is less formal than it once was, but following some simple guidelines will help ease…
Read more

There are many thing that can be done with flowers after a funeral is over. When my father passed away there were so many flowers that it was overwhelming to my mother. That situation made me think more about what…
Read more

Losing someone you love can impact your mind, body, and soul. It creates this hole in your heart that was once filled by that one person. It can feel like an entire part of you is missing, almost like a…
Read more

If you don’t want to bother reading the whole thing, then skip down to where you will see this: KISS I’m sure each and every one of us has been through at least one of it, even if it is…
Read more

Losing a loved one is an aspect of life that nobody wants to face because it comes with extreme emotional pain and anguish as well as devastating psychological trauma. Most people find it very overwhelming and often times cannot move…
Read more

It was two years ago yesterday, August 24th, 2009, that my eighty seven year old father passed on. Having lost my mother when I was fifteen, this has left me an orphan of sorts. We all experience the death of loved…
Read more

Unfortunately, my family had to deal with the loss of a baby, a still born, just this past weekend. Nothing in this world can prepare you for the loss of a child, and no body can tell you how much…
Read more

It is normal to experience grief whenever there is a loss in our lives. Some losses are small, like the loss of your favorite pen. Others are huge, like the loss of a spouse or a child. Some are in…
Read more