A Grief Support Blog

This blog will allow you the opportunity to acquire both support and guidance after experiencing a significant loss.

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Uh-oh, it's that time again. Grief and the Holidays

The holidays are approaching. A joyous time. A festive time. A time when families and friends celebrate the passage of another year and the coming of a new year. But not everyone will feel like celebrating. If this is the first year since the death of a loved one or a divorce, the grief and the holidays may be difficult. Since time does not heal emotional wounds, subsequent holiday times may be painful and awkward. Even surrounded by family and friends, grievers may feel isolated, alone, and as if no one understands.

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  • Nov 14, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 6 comments

Honoring our Veterans

In its day, World War One was called "The War to End All Wars." Sadly, it wasn't. WWI officially ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year, 1918. Each year we commemorate that ending on Veteran's Day, which was originally called Armistice Day. There aren't too many folks left who were around when that came to pass. {C}{C}

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  • Nov 10, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Bereavement Scriptures (Part 1)

 

Sometimes we open this column with a suggestion that you grab a coffee because we've written a longer-than-usual piece. Today, you might get a piece of pound cake to go with your java. Why pound cake? Because pound cake is a simple thing and digests easily. We're about to broach a topic that will fly in the face of conventional awareness and could benefit from a digestive aid.

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  • Oct 23, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Bereavement Help: A few reasons why avoiding emotions hurts you

"He can run, but he can't hide." That famous expression is attributed to heavyweight boxing champ Joe Louis, in 1946. Joe's statement was in reaction to being told that his next opponent, Billy Conn, was very fast and would run around the ring a great deal to try to avoid getting hit by Mighty Joe.

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  • Oct 14, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 1 comments

An emotional weekend

I started last Saturday at a funeral and ended it at a wedding. Many tears and tissues later when I got home, I was drained. Granted, different kinds of tears for each event, but huge wellsprings of emotions erupted within me. I hit several gushers. In the morning, I stood in a chapel at a cemetery with 100 others, most of whom I knew.  My dear friend, Raymond, who had died, was Chinese.

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  • Sep 23, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Mourning the deaths of celebrities we loved

It's late at night in the editorial office of a major metropolitan newspaper. The office, near the top of a high-rise building, is nearly deserted. There are only a few lights on. It's very quiet except for the clacking of a single computer keyboard. A lone reporter sits in his cubicle putting the finishing touches on his latest assignment. In a pause-to-think moment he stops typing.

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  • Sep 22, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Moving can be traumatic

There's a reason that the Wednesday edition of the Grief Recovery Update is arriving on Thursday. No, the dog didn't eat my homework, but he did cause a real big problem in our lives, but that's another story, for another time. The big reason was that Wednesday was escrow closing day on the house that Alice and I bought here in Southern California.

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  • Sep 04, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

No time like the present

We're hard approaching the second remembrance of the tragic events of 9/11/2001, less than a month away.

It is sometimes said that there are lessons in these kinds of events. Pundits say that we can learn from tragedy. Maybe that's so. But what exactly are the lessons? And who's teaching them?

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  • Aug 06, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Talking about grief in the media: We can help!

I was heading to the park with my dog at the end of an emotionally exhausting day of writing - in between six million phone calls [and you know I never exaggerate]. My car radio was tuned to the AM talk-radio station I usually listen to at that time of day. I like the host. He's well spoken, with strong opinions, but a nice manner.

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  • Jul 03, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Scattering the ashes of a loved one

There are more than one million empty graves in the United States; graves with inscribed head stones or metal markers, but with neither a casket, a body, nor even an urn with ashes inside. You probably don't know the explanation for this strange phenomenon. July 16, 2003 will mark the fourth anniversary of the tragic deaths of John F.

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  • Jun 27, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

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