My wife suffered a series of health problems over the last 20 years of our 30 year marriage.  She had brain surgery to clamp a bleeding vein, and later a small stroke, and heart problems.  Her personality changed over the course of these illnesses, making her docile, forgetful, and dependent on me to make all the important decisions.  She became childlike.  I hid as much of her mental decline from her as I could and treated…

What hope is there for our dead loved ones? It's good to know God has not forgotten them.

“If a man die, shall he live again?” asked the man Job long ago. (Job 14:14, King James Version) Perhaps you, too, have wondered about this. How would you feel if you knew that a reunion with your loved ones was possible right here on earth under the…

I live in world of one day at a time.  Sometimes I feel good about it and sometimes I feel like the world is falling out from under me.  My husband decided it was time to leave me on August 8, 2011.  Except he left with no answers, no clues to why and no goodbyes.  I really haven't told alot of people how my feelings are so mixed about the whole situation.  I fight each day to start with smile. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't.  My biggest question in my mind is why.  What did…

I lost my husband on July 16, 2011.  He was only 54 years old and his death was totally unexpected.  He suffered a massive heart attack as I was driving him to the emergency room, and I watched him die as a Lorain police officer and EMT's tried desperately to save his life in the parking lot of Century Park.   His loss and the trauma of watching everything unfold has been more than I can bear at times. because I relive it every day.  Everyone tells me that time will heal my pain, but it has…

 I don't even know where to start. I guess I will start with Tom. I met Tom when I was 28. He was wonderful. He was tall dark and handsome. He was such a hard worker and so devoted to me and our kids. I had one boy from a previous marriage. Tom was a devoted step father, my son adored him.Together we had two more children. Nine years after we were married Tom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Six months after his diagnosis he passed away. Here I was 40 years old with three kids all…

While I miss my son more than words will ever describe and I want to scream and smash things and cry until I die too. Everyone here knows the pain of missing them, knows the endless tears that come with it.

 I'm so sorry we all have to be here, I'm sorry we share this common bond. It's not something any of us ever planned, made an entry on a bucket list, we're thrown into it in spite of gender, race, religion, etc.

 In the past 3 3/4 years I've come to accept that I didn't do…

October 19th, 2012 i lost my great-grandmother. She had fallen and didn't say anything to anyone. She had osteoporosis.  She lived with my grandmother for 20 years. They had moved 2 hours away from the family about 4 years ago. We had gotten a call around 2 am that Betty boop wasn't making any sense was somewhat confused and didn't know what was going on around her. So, my grandmother took her to the nearest medical center to be examined. Come to find out she stood on her trunk to open a…

Q. When my uncle died recently and funeral arrangements had to be made, the funeral director turned out to be a woman. I’d never heard of a female funeral director before. Is this common today?

Times have changed, and women funeral directors are no longer unusual. Neither are female embalmers. In 2010, 57.1% of mortuary science students in the United…

I'm trying to start from the beginning

With my very first memory of you

I remember sitting on a bench

I had grazed my knee

I remember you wiping the blood away

I remember eating dried pineapples with you

From a little fridge in a caravan

To me they were like lollies

I remember yanking your beard like it was a toy all the time

I remember when you shaved it off and we giggled at you because you looked so different

I…

I have a genuine concern and focus concerning the needs of those who have family, friends and neighbors etc., who have lost someone to death. Also, for those themselves, who are facing death I have a listening ear and heart as well (Psalms 94:19; 2nd Corinthians 1:3,4).

On Wed 19th December 2012 my brother phoned me about 8.30pm. We had recently had a falling out, over the way my brother had treated my dad, but had sorted things out over text so I thought he was calling to say sorry.

Instead he told me my dad was gone. He killed himself at the cemetery where his own dad, the grandfather I never met, was buried.

I love my dad so much. We were very close. He had depression over the years but I honestly never ever…

On Wed 19th December 2012 my brother phoned me about 8.30pm. We had recently had a falling out, over the way my brother had treated my dad, but had sorted things out over text so I thought he was calling to say sorry.

Instead he told me my dad was gone. He killed himself at the cemetery where his own dad, the grandfather I never met, was buried.

I love my dad so much. We were very close. He had depression over the years but I honestly never ever…

Hold on to me love

You know I can't stay long

All I wanted to say was I love you and I'm not afraid

Can you hear me?

Can you feel me in your arms?



Holding my last breath

Safe inside myself

Are all my thoughts of you

Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight



I'll miss the winter

A world of fragile things

Look for me in the white forest

Hiding in a hollow tree [come find me]

I know you hear me

I can taste it in your…

I had to come on today as since the new year, I have turned around and am heading back down to how I was when my husband died in 2010.   New Years day was always special for us.   We entertained my family (sister, 2 nieces and husbands) and any stray friends who had nowewhere else to go.   My husband loved playing mine host and was always the life and sould of the party and just loved this day.   Since my family have abandoned me  since he died (of no further use to them) there would be no…

My daughter died over two years ago at age 54 after a long illness. At a Christmas party last month, I saw a woman who had been a friend of hers when she was in graduate school.   She walked up to me, introduced herself, hugged me and said that she just wanted to say how sorry she was. Saying you are sorry is good, but I was not thinking about anything but fun until then. Why wait two years and hit me with a reminder at an elegant party? I live in the same house and have the same listed…

Grief, it is a harrowing journey, a journey that changes people. But through it, we strengthen. Grief; we must not let it define who we are, but we must let it prepare us for who we will be" -Catherine…

I have been hanging on to this wonderful list of life lessons waiting for the New Year to let them loose. They were allegedly written by 90-year-old Regina Brett for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.

In reality, Brett is much younger – not much more than half of 90. She’s been writing award-winning columns for the paper since 2000, and when she turned…

Q. I’m thinking about selling my house, but I’ve heard that a widow should wait a year before doing so. Why is that time frame important?

After your mate dies, you’re likely to be numb, in shock, and barely able to put one foot in front of the other. This state gradually begins to ease for most of us, but it isn’t a straight line. There are…