It’s hard to write condolence letters. After all, you’re dealing with death and most of us want to avoid the topic. Death makes us feel vulnerable and sad and in that state of mind, we face the formidable task of reaching out to someone who feels much worse than we do.

But condolence letters are really important. Personal messages of sympathy go a long way in…

I was actually joyful in finding this support group. I have been trying to cope with the loss of my mother last March and it has been a very difficult year. I have been trying to remember her in all her joyful time knowing that she is happy now, free of her ailing body.. and yet I miss her so. I remember her is every thing I do... funny how the loss of a loved one magnifies every mundane task that is associated with the departed.

I have started to follow rituals which my mother based…

Its been a while my ex-roommate has been battling bone cancer.  And I have been hearing from her on and off and it is tearing me apart as I see her progress towards her ailment...

She is in the hospital fighting with her last bit and I am feeling so helpless.

She has a son and her husband. The son is too little to know why she cries all the time.

She is in New Jersey and I am in India..and as I call her I receive only her answering machine..

I would like to tell…

Q. Next month is the first anniversary of the death of a friend’s daughter. Is it appropriate to call or write at that time to acknowledge the anniversary, or will that just stir up painful memories?

A. Your concern about causing pain is a common one. Yet one of the best things you can do for someone who has lost a loved one is talk about—and listen to the person talk about—the deceased. This is true not only around the…

The loss of my son Jon has changed my spirit.  I do not have that happy go lucky attitude anymore, but I do have a deeper spiritual belief.  Following Jon's death I began to experience events which were unexplainable.  I would receive calls from people throughout the United States.  They would inquire as to why I had called them as my phone number would show up on their caller ID. No one in our home had made these calls.  In fact many of the calls were received when I was at home alone.  I…

It's a strange world we live in a very very strange world

If we could have a lifetime wish

A dream that would come true,

We'd pray to God with all our hearts and all our Might

For yesterday and You.

A thousand words can't bring you back

...We know because we've tried...

Neither will a thousand tears

We know because we've cried...even more

You left behind our broken hearts

And happy memories too...

But we never wanted memories

We only…

Ok .. I went to sleep late last nite and I had been thinking about my dad for the past couple of days. One thing that we used to do was challenge each other in a game of bejeweled.See who got the highest score and we would tease each other about who was the master. =)

I hadn't played in awhile and i just recently started playing a lot more . So this morning I woke up in the early morning . It was still dark out,and I swore that I saw someone at the computer playing bejeweled. I…

All "H" broke loose on Christmas Eve and just when I think the worst is over and I'm finally having a day when I'm not grieving or angry or depressed, another diaster bomb drops out of the sky and SPLAT! we get hit again.  My husband got a rash on Dec. 22, 10.  By the 27th it looked like he'd been burned in a fire he was so red and his sking was rolling off him.  Our family Dr. went home during the appointment, so the nurse practicioner saw him.  She called the dr. on call & he had her…

We generally, I'm sure, do what others do in other rural areas such as ours. Most of our community families choose to have the visitation and services at one of our churches (Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ). Food is indeed brought to the Fellowship Halls wherever the body is, and until only recently, a memeber of the community, be it close friend or whomever besides the family (or they can if they so choose, but usually not, since they are worn out already) "sit up" all…