grief

Losing a family member is one of the most traumatic life events; Families must support one another to endure the five stages of grief and get through it together.

My Addiction
Dear mom, Let me finally be honest with you. I am not the innocent daughter that you believed I was for all of my life. I have lied to you so many times, because of the shame that I felt. No I did not eat too much ice cream this week or anything like that. Before I tell you, I want to say - in my eyes, you are the greatest mother on planet earth. After all that you’ve been through in your own life, I couldn’t bare to confess to you who I was becoming and who I am now. I knew you wanted a much better life for me than you had, and although that has happened, there are moments where I do wish things were more ‘perfect’. You have seen the many dark sides of me and have forgiven me for everything before I had even done it. Unconditional love – that is what I have in my life because YOU exist. But I feel as though I don’t deserve it sometimes.
By Radmyla Domracheva4 years ago in Families
Dear Mama, I Wish You'd Known
Dear Mama, First of all, I'd like to wish you a Happy Mother's Day. As a small child, it was always all about you. You were the sun I orbited around. Like for many only children, this was bound to happen. This remained true for our entire lives.
By The Mouthy Renegade Writer4 years ago in Families
Mommy
Oh the things that I would say to you if I could. I was at an Epicure party when I got the call that said you were gone. Dad offered to come get me, but I declined and continued with the party for some time before politely excusing myself. Replaying it in my mind now, I do see it as a bit disturbing. Just calmly telling people that you just found out that your biological mother has died, and you really should be going now. But bad foster homes had gifted me with an emotional shield that few have been able to penetrate. And I’ll be the first to admit that my mask does come in handy. So I was able to tuck this bit of information away, as I do with so many other things, and save it for later. I held it together while speaking with other members of my family. And even to myself I appeared okay (as awful as that may sound). It’s not that I disliked or hated you. It was just that for me, the relationship was not there. Having you absent for most of my childhood definitely did some of that. My Mom and Dad were part of it. I too was part of it. I know you had your struggles, mentally and physically. I don’t judge you for that, as I share in some of those same struggles as well. I had thought that you were okay with Dad and Stacy raising us. And I initially thought that you passing was indeed quite sad, but I also felt that I should be extremely grateful that it was not someone whom I was closer to that was now gone. I genuinely believed that I was going to be just fine. But then I started going through your possessions alongside my siblings. Finding the kind of knickknacks that I myself would have collected, the little things you kept and cherished, the paperwork showing just how hard you tried to get us back. I had no idea. And I admit that I did eventually crumble. Not at my sisters house where we went through what was left of your life, but later on at home, in my bed. I cried, and hurt so much, realizing what I had lost, what I had not even known was there to lose. And realizing the pain you must have endured all of these years. In the Bible they speak of a weeping, wailing, and knashing of teeth. That is what I felt. Pain and anger at things which are lost and can not be returned. And guilt. Oh the guilt. I should have tried to reach out. I thought that there was time. I didn’t give any thought to the fact that people can be gone in the blink of an eye, and that you won’t see it coming, and that there is nothing you can do to change things after the fact. All you’re left with is the pain and the meager hope that you can do better next time.
By MistyRose 4 years ago in Families
Sorry Mum
“Hey, Mom. I never told you this before, but” the reason I have such a hard time saying I love you is because I have the hardest time loving myself. You and Dad always taught me that the most important person to love is oneself and of recent that has become difficult. This letter is selfishly more to myself than to you. However, by the end, I'm sure we may both see the benefits. It started a couple of months ago, I was lost on what to do with my first heartbreak having never gone through such a fiasco and only being 17.
By Nick4 years ago in Families
Stolen Socks. Top Story - May 2022.
Dear Mom, I stole your socks. It wasn't intentional, I just borrowed them, but I never got the chance to give them back to you. I still have them, despite my many moves since. I keep them in my sock drawer, and I feel guilty even after twenty-seven years.
By Mary Haynes4 years ago in Families
In The Blink Of An Eye
Dear Mom, It has been four years since I lost you, and I miss you every day that passes by. I remember how much I admired you when I was little. You were the matriarch of our family, and everyone looked up to you. No matter what challenges we faced, you always tackled them with such strength and perseverance. You were there whenever I needed you, and I knew I could always count on you. It's the small memories that mean the most to me, though. Like when we would cook together. Or when you would read me a bedtime story at night. But my favorite was when you would sing to me. I close my eyes, and I can still hear the sound of your voice. What I really miss, though, is your cooking. To this day, I dream about your sweet potato pie. Even though I must have seen you make it a thousand times, I can never make it as good as you.
By Shawn Williams4 years ago in Families
Life and beyond
From the very beginning, this life force inside of us so small and so fragile makes us often feel like a once crumpled piece of paper finally ready to write a story. A blank slate is presented, one so precious and unable to unfold on its own.
By Jordan Sophia Thomas4 years ago in Families
Another Tragedy: Another Day in America
I found myself reading an article yesterday that listed the 19 children and two teachers that tragically lost their lives this Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas.
By Test4 years ago in Families
I think I knew you were going to die
Dear Mama, I think I knew you were going to die. Okay, hear me out, I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but a month before it happened, I had a dream that all my teeth were falling out. Each and every one of them. One by one, they would slip into my hands. I would try to shove them back in, anxiously trying to put together an undone puzzle. In the dream, my gums gushed raw blood. My hands dripped with the aftermath of loss. I screamed for hours. At the time, I thought my biggest issue was going to be, how will I chew my food? When I woke up, I wrote it all down in my silly notes before, of course, texting my friend.
By mak 4 years ago in Families
Creative Conspiracies
Time seems irrelevant. Daily I think of you and memories of standing over you in the hospital while you took your last breath seem like yesterday. 2022 is such a different world. I cannot fathom what you would have done or instructed me to do if- during your time, schools were being taken over by shooters with no motive other than to soothe their own delusional semblance of ways to combat their mental health challenges.
By Deirdre Berry4 years ago in Families
Meri Jaan. Top Story - May 2022.
Dear Mama, I think I knew you were going to die. Okay, hear me out, I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but a month before it happened, I had a dream that all my teeth were falling out. Each and every one of them. One by one, they would slip into my hands. I would try to shove them back in, anxiously trying to put together an undone puzzle. In the dream, my gums gushed raw blood. My hands dripped with the aftermath of loss. I screamed for hours. At the time, I thought my biggest issue was going to be, how will I chew my food? When I woke up, I wrote it all down in my silly notes before, of course, texting my friend.
By mak 4 years ago in Families
Speaking Into The Ether. Top Story - May 2022.
Dear Mummy, You’ve been gone a long time. Far too long in my opinion. But that’s the weird thing about life and death isn’t it? There is not enough time in life; we will always say that we wish we could have longer with our loved ones before they depart. Yet when the time does indeed arrive, the aftermath seems to last far beyond what seems bearable; there is too much time in death. That’s my takeaway from the past 13 years without you anyway.
By AM4 years ago in Families