Tag: adult orphan

Overlapping Grief Years

When Mike died in 2012, I went to a support group for people who had spouses/partners that had died. A man shared that the first year is hard, but the second year is harder. It had only been six months since Mike’s death, and this was not something I wanted to hear. However, I was…… Continue reading Overlapping Grief Years

Holiday Memories

I haven’t been to my family home in Syracuse for the holidays in over twenty years because I live in Arizona, and my parents lived in New York. However, this year is different because this is the first Thanksgiving since they died. As the day creeps nearer, so do the overwhelming emotions I have kept…… Continue reading Holiday Memories

Secondary Losses

Grief is complicated because it is not only the death of the person you love but also the secondary losses that come with death. Nothing prepares you for the excruciating pain that accompanies death. However, it’s the unexpected secondary losses that nobody really talks about. They include changes to finances, friendships, family relationships, identity, and…… Continue reading Secondary Losses

Grief Landscape

One of the prompts that I had in Writing You Grief was to write how your landscape had changed. When I was a child, I would watch scary movies that always seemed to have quicksand in them. I was always terrified of falling into quicksand, though I didn’t live in an area where there was…… Continue reading Grief Landscape

Living in Two Worlds

“The trick, if there is one, is to maintain both: wonder and sadness, curiosity and grief. Joy and the absence of joy. Overcome by neither, open to both.” I’m using this quote from “Writing Your Grief” as a jumping-off point to write on melancholy because I’ve learned to live in a world of both/and.  Grief…… Continue reading Living in Two Worlds

Smoldering Ache of Loss

Smoldering means smoke with no flames.  Flames are the roar of death, either sudden or expected.  Both hurt.  The smoke is the pain left behind, filling my lungs until I can barely breathe.  Mike’s sudden death smoldered in my mind and heart for years as I learned to live without him.  After the first two…… Continue reading Smoldering Ache of Loss

Blue

In the “Writing Your Grief” group that I’m doing never know if I will write about Mike, my mom, or my dad.  It always seems that the person I’m supposed to be writing about comes to me when I start to write. This prompt is about my dad. This was the last photo that I…… Continue reading Blue

Grief Personified

https://videopress.com/v/a91MTOp5?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&autoPlay=true&loop=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true Grief Spiralcopyright Jennifer Mullins I signed up for “Writing Your Grief” by Megan Devine a week after my dad’s funeral.  It’s a 30-day program with daily prompts to write about your grief.  The pain of my dad’s death was compounded by the death of my mom six months earlier and my husband ten years…… Continue reading Grief Personified