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.
Everyone Else Was Grieving
Everyone else was grieving. I wasn’t. Who would have thought that the daughter of the man who died was not grieving? When it came time to say my final goodbyes, I stood by his grave. I stood by my family and friends... and I cried. Months go by, I am okay. I can do it. I can survive. Yet on days like today, I wake up with a hole in my heart and what feels like a bag of bricks sitting on my chest. Many times at night, I stare out the window, perfectly angled to see the moon. I know my father is always looking over me but that is not what bothers me. Is he proud of who I am? Is he mourning with me? I may not know those answers but what I do know is that I am trying my damn hardest just to get up and even take a shower. Even if getting out of bed for fifteen minutes, and I MEAN only fifteen minutes, then I can be proud of myself for taking a step towards a stronger tomorrow.
By Alexa Stephanie8 years ago in Families
Pink Clouds
When I was nearing my tenth birthday, my older sister Ingrid had just turned sixteen. She attended the school across the street from our church, where the teachers allowed you to call them by their first name and art was an integral part of the learning curriculum. I practically begged Ingrid to show me her homework, and after teasing me for being a dork, she would pull pages upon pages of beautiful sketches and colorful paintings out of her book bag. And once my mother had tucked me into sleep at night, I would wait to hear Ingrid give a kiss and hug to my parents before going into the room across from mine for bed. Some nights, it took what seemed like hours for my parent's to go to sleep, but every time they did I would tiptoe over to Ingrid's bedroom and crawl in her bed.
By Megan Leahey8 years ago in Families
Snowflake Memories
Experiencing the death of a loved one is hard, to put it plainly. My first real experience with death was my mom when I was five years old. It is difficult to process feelings of any kind at that age. Let alone something as profound as death. It has taken years to comprehend and accept my feelings and emotions. I am, at long last, finally able to write down those feelings in a way someone looking in from the outside would understand. Perhaps, this will help anyone else dealing with a similar loss; just as writing it has helped me.
By Anna Themas8 years ago in Families
How to Cope with the Death of a Loved One
With April coming up, it has been nine years since my dad passed away from a tragic automobile accident. It's not been an easy nine years. Some days are worse than others, especially around the holidays. That's when it seems to be the hardest.
By Susan Whallon Meeks8 years ago in Families
Death...Why Did You Come?
What should have been a relaxing Sunday afternoon after work became the nightmare I never wished for. From this day forward all our lives would be changed forever. Death is hard and death brings sadness, but unexplained sudden death is different in so many ways.
By Claire Johnston8 years ago in Families
Our Miscarriage
I have always wanted to have a chil, but I never really gave it much thought until 2014-2015. I was working as a cashier at Walmart and this lady came through my line with her newborn baby girl in the car seat, and she was just glowing; she was smiling so big at the baby, singing to her as she patted the baby's feet together, and talking in a baby voice. You could tell that she was enjoying being a mommy. It warmed my heart for a bit, but I went on with my day, but as my shift went along I noticed more and more babies and toddlers coming through my line. Not every parent was full of joy like my first customer, but even the angry parents seemed to enjoy having a "minnie-me." That's not what made me want to have a baby though. This one lady had two cart fulls of groceries and about six kids and a baby with her. "Boy, you have your hands full today," I said to her, thinking that she had other people's kids with her, but she told me those were half of the bunch and that they were her kids. I looked at her with complete shock as she laughed and told me the story of how she has thirteen children, I couldn't believe it and asked her what made her and her husband decide to have so many children? The lady had told me that after having about three, they had decided to keep having more because they brought so much joy to them. I saw the joy and the glow in her face as she just hummed a tune to her baby and held his hand, making the loud, echoing store be still just for a moment in peace. That moment I had a sudden urge of wanting to be a parent. I thought maybe it was just baby fever, but ever since that day I still want to be a parent.
By Kaela Roettger8 years ago in Families
The Day I Lost My Grandma
March 4, 2002, I found out that my grandma had passed away. I thought it was all a dream, until I saw the look on my mom's face. All I could do was lay on the floor and cry all night long. I loved my grandma so much. Every time I would go visit her, she and I would go out to eat and have a very good day together. She spoiled me to death. My grandma taught me how to cook a lot of her best recipes. My grandma was a very short, funny lady. She got along with everybody. All her neighbors loved her. She never had problems with anybody. My mom and I cherish so many memories of her.
By Shante Hernandez8 years ago in Families
Losing Someone You Love Unexpectedly
December 8, 2016 I woke up in my room by hearing my mom's cellphone ringing in her room. I laid still, listening to her talk to my uncle about something that would change our family forever. I heard her get out of bed and walk into my room to tell me my grandpa had fallen and hit his head so bad that he had to be transported to our hospital from his so they could do a platelet transplant. I instantly got this sick feeling in my stomach that this would be the fall that would take him away from us. I got up and reluctantly got ready for school. Third period came around when the speaker came on asking for me to be dismissed. I met my mom at the back of campus and we rushed to the hospital, the entire time I had no clue what was going on. When we arrived to the hospital I walked to the ICU with my mom to be greeted by our pastor, my godmother, grandmother, and a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon explained to us that there was bleeding on my grandpa's brain and that he needed to have surgery as soon as possible. We called the rest of the family and by 11 PM everyone was there. We all shuffled into his room, three at a time, to tell him we loved him and good luck. The first surgery was successful, it was the days that followed that were a nightmare.
By Abigail Sikora8 years ago in Families
Only God Knows Why
On this day, the trees were changing from that nasty greenish brown color to the beautiful autumn orangey yellow color. There were freshly carved pumpkins sitting outside the doors of the houses. The air was just warm enough for a long-sleeve shirt and jeans, but too cold for a t-shirt and shorts. In the house lingered the smell of fresh apple pie my mother made. That morning I woke up and thought it was going to be a normal day where I would be driven to school, sit through about 8 boring hours of Mrs. Walker's third grade class, then get picked up and go home. Needless to say, I was not expecting that this day, October 3rd, 2003, would be the day my whole world flipped upside down.
By Tiffany Tushkowski8 years ago in Families
The Loss
Losing sucks. But losing "someone" in your life is a different story. We have all lost a soccer game or a game of monopoly with friends, but losing a loved one is hard, especially at fifteen years old. This story is a true story about how I lost my dad. It will make you laugh and cry.
By Olympia Pav8 years ago in Families
