The kleenex box got passed around the classroom a few times at the Radford University Death and Bereavement class where Katherine Chantal and I were recently guests, sharing our Grief and Relief, Soulful Aging Poetry to counseling students. Professor Alan Forrest was our host, and it wasn’t the first time I had been a featured […]
Following the posting of THIS poem about my sister’s death in 2015, I received a few comments on this blog and on Facebook asking about my brothers Jim and Dan’s back to back deaths, which happened in 2001. I actually wrote a book about it that was used for years as part of a Radford […]
We were asked to be present to an evening that will never happen again. We were asked not to take photos or video clips at the Nights of Grief and Mystery, so this is for memory. But it’s a true story and it really happened, as Griefwalker Stephen Jenkinson likes to preface some of his […]
In November of 2014, I visited my elderly mother in my hometown of Hull, Massachusetts to help with her care. She’s been physically disabled for four years now and has hired caregivers from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I’ve helped with her care on several occasions before, but this was a trip I had been […]
“Are you working on something creative now?” the psychic asked me. “Yes,” I answered. “Good. Many people don’t live out their creativity; you are. You have good focus but also some residual persecution issues, and so you may have some trouble with follow-through,” she said. She wasn’t telling me anything new. “It’s very important that […]
The roots of my interest in writing go back further than reading my first poems to Sherry and has something to do with the songs of the 40’s and the nursery rhymes that our father taught us. It has something to do with my childhood play in the tall grass by the blackberry bushes. Talking […]
~ At the end, the living spirit of one’s life is supposed to shine through the tatters of the body’s mortal cloak. The gold of the self is supposed to become more visible despite and because the body begins to fall apart. The inner knowledge is supposed to shine through and become more available as […]
In the spirit of my brother Danny who died in 2001, I went to his 40th year class reunion while in town to help out my mother in Hull this month. The strange line-up that began the crashing of the class of 1970’s reunion began with the crashing of a party for the class of […]
But what you cannot bear to see is all that you will find … as mine is now and always yours, and yours is always mine … From “For Wayne” by Mara This is the page in my son Josh’s collage journal that he randomly opened to while talking with a friend named Melissa […]
I don’t know that you ever get over losing a loved one or if you just become hardened to the fact. It’s been 8 years since my brother Jim’s unexpected death, followed by my brother Dan’s a month later. Yesterday I was reminded at how far I have come from those first few tender years […]
What’s it all about, Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live? ~ Joss Stone lyrics Whenever I slow down enough to where I’m not ruled by deadlines, a schedule, or commitments to others, I begin to be aware of underlying and subtle sadness that makes me wonder if all my activity isn’t actually […]
Joe shuffled papers like a TV newscaster as people filtered into the Jessie Peterman Library’s Community Room. I smiled as they entered, just happy that the temporary crown on one of my front teeth that fell out earlier in the day was still in place. The talk my husband and I were scheduled to give […]
