My parents were also grieving, they felt helpless and hopeless. To make matters worse, my family could not travel back home to Nigeria for the funeral and say goodbye to make peace with the situation due to financial problems, and other issues at the time. Despite only being 15, I felt I had no one else to turn to but myself. This meant my grief was and still is undealt with. To this day, thinking about it hurts me and brings me to tears. Written by Mercy Blackstarr This story was hard for me to write because I struggled to put my thoughts into words. Hopefully, as I start writing, things will ..read more

Written by Temitayo Taiwo Dad promised to come and see me, but he never did. This will probably be one of my most poignant posts, but it has been a long time coming. Finally, after sharing my story and the tough lessons learned with a few people, who were so encouraged, I was reminded that it was time. I'm blessed with the very best family who loves God wholeheartedly. I tell people my mum married the best man on earth who loved her so much, he always wanted to be by her side at every moment. They cooked together, watched TV together, prayed together, and did everything together. Mum and dad ..read more

Written by Isha Armour Why do we fight to live and not fight for death? When someone we care about dies, we cry. Someone we care about lives we celebrate. Why is this? Often we desperately want to live and love, but who or what decides this? These questions have been bugging me since my mum's health drastically deteriorated. Life is a beautiful creation. Look at everyone so unique and divinely created. Yet, we fight and hate each other for what? We sin against the Divine made in each other rather than love and cherish the Divine of each other, as God asks of us. For the second time in my life ..read more

Written by Adewunmi Makanjuola I received some pictures from my younger brother a few weeks ago, and boy, did we go down memory lane! They were pictures of mum. The images of us as a family radiated and showed the beauty of us all, especially my mum. 21 years ago, my mum died. I was 9, and although I was young, I remember the memories we shared. Adeoye, my younger brother, was one-year-old when mum died. 21 years later and I still remember the details of events that lead to the day she died. The time spent looking at pictures of our mum and talking about her felt very cosy and warm, especiall ..read more

A question I have been asked about being a widowed parent is how has the transition been and how life has been during the early months after the passing of my wife? My social support network of family and friends were solid. They practically put their lives on hold so that I could find my feet and learn to walk again. In this post, I intend to share the various ways they have cushioned me as a widowed parent, some challenges I have learned to navigate, and my coping strategies. The simple answer is that family and friends' social support was a massive help to me during my transition into wido ..read more

Written by Diane Kalu I now fully understand the importance of living an impactful life even though everything can change in an instance. Grief is a subject I’m familiar with, having lost a brother at a young age, my husband, and my mum. My husband Leslie and I got married in 2009. Our marriage was blessed with two boys and a girl. Our daughter was eight weeks old when my life took a 180-degree turn and on a cool Tuesday night. Leslie had become more committed to his Christian faith and enjoyed attending the mid-week worship experience at our local church and wouldn’t miss it for anything in ..read more

Written by Isha Armour I can remember to a great depth, painful memories, where my mum suffered abuse at the hands of my biological dad. My siblings and I witnessed it as early as I was five years old. At 11 years old, my mum had to seek a safe house for herself and her four children, separating from my dad and getting a restraining order against him, with hopes of being safe. Part of me hated living with him, and I wish I could erase the memories. Eventually, my mum got her very own apartment, and life moved on one step, one day at a time. Then, my stepdad, Wayne, came into the picture when ..read more

How do those who support a bereaved family or friend cope? Usually, when we think of grief and burnout, we think of the bereaved person, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, we often forget about the impact of grief on those supporting bereaved families or friends. They also experience compassion fatigue. In this post, I’d like to raise awareness of what grief, burnout, and compassion fatigue look like for those supporting their bereaved family or friends. And how to identify and care for yourself if you have reached the point of grief burnout. Most of us entered the new decade, 2020 ..read more

Written by Mary Brantuo I married my best friend, he was the love of my life, I had known him for over 20 years. We got married on the 3rd of October 2015 a day I will never forget. A day filled with love, laughter, food, and music. The day I married the love of my life. He was the ‘pounded yam to ogbono.‘ He was the most caring, thoughtful, and God-fearing man. He would do anything for anyone. I loved how much he loved God. His family meant the world to him and there wasn’t anything he would not do for Hezekiah and me. "How could someone I have known for over 20 years ago just die like that ..read more

My desire with today's post is to bring a ray of hope to anyone who's mourning or grieving the death of their loved one by throwing light into another part of the grieving process on rainbows and coping with the grief and loss of a loved one. I want to tell you a personal story about rainbows before I further discuss how the rainbow relates to life after the loss of a loved one. In the many conversations Chidinma and I had about the things that we like, one that stood out was her love and fascination with one of nature's most beautiful displays, rainbows. I have never met an adult fascinated ..read more