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.
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
Advice From a Motherless Daughter
I'll never forget the day I was in the hospital room as my mother's doctor explained to her the severity of her cancer diagnosis as well as the very small odds of surviving such an intense and advanced form. I was only 17 and my mother was only 42. By looking at my mother, how much effort she put into everyday and raising six children, you would have never guessed she was sick. In fact, I think she was surprised as she only went to the doctor with a pain in her right side. It was colon cancer, stage IV, that had spread to her liver. The doctors seemed genuinely surprised as colon cancer is usually found in older patients. But, no matter how rare the situation, my mother was one of the unlucky few and I knew I was probably going to lose my mother and soon. My mother passed away a year later, shortly after my senior graduation and suddenly, the world turned into an unfamiliar place, one I didn't know if I would ever come to terms with. I'm going to start this with my advice to those who have lost their mothers and then to those who have not. I feel like both sides are equally important and may, hopefully, be helpful to someone.
By Kasey Gilbert8 years ago in Families
