Like most kids a love of milk shakes begins in early childhood. The blending of milk, syrup, and ice cream, to make a refreshing drink made to a desired consistency to be slurped through a straw and promise an almost instant cooling. Timmy was no different. He was thrilled when I took him to the local Wawa…

I was lead from the Family Room to the Emergency Room. I was crossing my arms across my chest; hugging myself – clutching my hat in one hand. I didn’t want to see my son lifeless. I wanted to see him sitting up in a gurney, embarrassed with a cut, a broken arm or leg. But that wasn’t meant to be. He laid there hospital gown and sheet. The intubation tube still in his mouth,…

Hi Hun

This is a very hard day as I know these kids were your life and I know they will have what you so wanted them to. Thank you for today. I love you so very much and miss you so much my heart aches.

The signs........Thank you hun.

Love ya'…

Here I am on the eve of Father’s Day; a day that is supposed to honor fathers.  Instead of looking forward to the little homemade gifts and cards, I dread the thought as I grieve my son’s death.  My Timothy gave it a purpose.  I have fifteen years of Father’s Day memories that came from my son – from a Hallmark card written by his mother a month before his birth,…

By Mary Ulses, Northern Cochise Community Hospital Auxiliary

The Broeder Family has suggested that as a Memorial to their daughter, Sarah, donations be made to the NCCH Auxiliary Scholarship Fund. One of Sarah’s goals for her future was to study to become a labor and delivery nurse. The NCCH Auxiliary Scholarship Fund provides scholarships to Willcox students who plan to enter the healthcare field after high school. There is a collection jar in the Gift Shop or checks can be…

Pull down the shades and draw the curtains,

Shut off the phone, lock the door; hang the black wreath

Allow me to feel the pain of my grief

Let me taste the burning salt of my angry tears

An unfinished story; pages torn and ripped out

Dented metal and a boy’s broken body

An angel wishes to escort him Home

Before…

An S-O-S friend posed a question of what various ways have survivors found to help cope with the grief, and I'd really like to hear from the rest of you, some of the things that have worked for you.  What are the most helpful ways you have found to help comfort, encourage, renew hope, and stabilize your thoughts and emotions?

Here are a few of the things I've tried recently...

     ...I…

My Dad was consistent, loving and caring and no matter the…

Who will you be missing this Father's Day? I’ll be thinking about and missing my granddaddies, Ozell and Brooken. Granddaddy Ozell died in 2006, Granddaddy Brooken just this past fall. I was lucky to know them and have them in my life well into adulthood.

I miss their smiles, their laughs, the twinkling in their…

Q. I’m thinking about running an In Memoriam ad in the newspaper as the fifth anniversary of my daughter’s death approaches. Is it appropriate to do this so long after she died? How do I place the ad and how much does it cost? What should I say?

A. An In Memoriam ad is appropriate on the anniversary of a loved one’s death or birthday. For example, I recently saw an In Memoriam, placed by a son, on what would have been his late father’s 100^th…

Every year when Father’s Day approaches, my husband and I pick up a debate that has been with us through 23 years of marriage. Is my dad’s fried corn better than his dad’s? Or vice versa?



It’s really kind of a moot point but a semantic exercise we enjoy annually.



When our two dads were still with us, both of them World War II veterans who knew their way around a kitchen or two, we happily…

Every Christmas, multitudes of parents flock to the malls to stand in line waiting to have their children photographed with Santa.  There was no difference with my family when it came to Timmy.  I had graduated from the Police Academy in June, 1998 when Timmy was just shy of his third birthday.  Since Timmy was born friends had told his mother and…

I was working one day in the summer of 1999; I was on patrol with my partner.  I was a year out of the Police Academy.  In my uniformed hat I had a photo sticker of Timmy.  It was about an hour into the tour when I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.  I felt as if I was about to vomit.  I didn’t know why; this was new – I never felt this acute and sudden wave of nausea.  I…