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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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

Where have you been? Why didn't you call?....and better ways to say I love you

Middle America - End of May, 1973: It was past midnight.  I had just been to the last official event of my senior year in high school with all my chums. I was very late coming home. As I pulled in the driveway I saw the curtains move in my mother’s bedroom window. She’d been watching out the window for me to return. I was 18. I was a responsible young woman.

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  • Jun 06, 2003
  • Lois Hall, MS
  • 1 comments

Helping employees who are grieving

Most people don’t talk about funerals. But we are not most people, and especially not as it relates to the topic of the conclusionary rituals that signify the end of physical life on this planet. We know a lot of people who don’t "do" funerals and don’t say "goodbyes" because of the misinformation and taint associated with both.

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  • May 28, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Should I take a pill for my grief?

The idea of ink-stained fingers dates back to my childhood. I am just old enough to have written with real pens and ink wells, before the dawn of the retractable ball-point pen; a distant memory of a simpler time. Today, when I write, I worry more about carpal tunnel syndrome than I do about blotching the paper or my fingers with ink. Now it's about ergonomics, not smudges.

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  • May 02, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Do boys and girls grieve differently?

Just the other day, I gave radio interview number 1,485 on the topic of grief recovery or people's reaction to loss and what to do about it. This one as many since the events of 9/11, 2001, focused on children and grief, and helping them deal with the frightening events in the news - like the recent war in Iraq.

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  • Apr 24, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 1 comments

Emotional muscle memory

The biochemistry of the human brain is being deciphered rapidly. Neurotransmitters have been identified, quantified, and classified. We've learned that our brains memorize passageways from stimulus to response at nearly unperceivable speeds. What is also obvious is that once the electro-chemical coding takes place and becomes entrenched, it is very hard to dislodge. So what else is new?

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  • Apr 02, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 5 comments

Why do good things happen to bad people?

Look carefully. Is that the question you thought it was or have the words been turned around? At first glance you might have thought it said, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Almost everybody knows this question and can tell you that it is also the title of a book. Many can also tell you that it's a book written from the author’s grief over the death of his son.

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  • Mar 31, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Time does not heal. Actions do

Awhile back I got a call from a young man who was reeling from the impact of a divorce that happened nearly two years ago. He had been married for twelve years. His litany of pain was palpable and his life was affected at all levels, with people falling away from him like leaves off a tree in a windstorm, and his business was diminishing at a rapid pace.

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  • Mar 26, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Why your brain only wants the bad news

Breaking News - Hometown, USA:

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  • Mar 26, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

Grief is becoming an open topic of conversation

The Grief Recovery Institute, as an organization, takes no position on political or social issues. We only have positions on how effectively we can help people deal with their reactions to loss of every imaginable kind. Of course, if we had the power, we would eliminate all events that harm anyone, but that’s not realistic.

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  • Mar 24, 2003
  • Russell Friedman
  • 0 comments

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