Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey I've listened to the Christian Music Radio Station Z88.3 FM for many years now. I like the uplifting music they play, and I know people who don't even identify as Christian who use this station as a primary source for listening when they're in their car. That's how awesome the music is. Anyway, at a Grief Share meeting, the hosts like to play a song to start each session. They've played songs I knew, and songs that were newer, such as the one below. I had heard it maybe once or twice before, but I hadn't paid attention to the lyrics. I did this ti ..read more

  Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey Sammy the Teddy Bear is the physical manifestation of Sammy the Teddy Bear in my mom's children's books A Gregory Green Adventure Series. I bought him for my mom in 2017 to have fun with my mom and to promote her children's books. My mom and I had a ton of fun with Sammy. He’s badass. See for yourself: Sammy went to book events. He has his own Wookie backpack. Read more ..read more

  Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey One thing you'll hear is to take your time. Don't rush. Don't change things too soon. And there is wisdom in that. Taking your time ensures that you're ready for the next steps and don't do something or get rid of something that you'll later regret. However, not everyone grieves the same way. And for some, waiting might be the painful part. REMOVING: The day my mom passed away, I started to get rid of all her medical supplies. Yes, I was sobbing while removing the blood pressure cuff, forehead thermometer, pulse oximeter, bathroom scale, and beds ..read more

Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom’s Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder A month and a half after my mom passed away, I read a book called Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom’s Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder. Some people would say I shouldn’t have read it so soon, but it helped me in a few ways. 1) In the beginning, while the author remembered her mom before the diagnosis, I remembered some things about my mom and wrote them down in a new journal that I’ll be using specifically for that purpose, to preserve memories. Side Note: If you're keeping ..read more

Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey MY MOM'S MEMORY JOURNAL:  April 8th, one month and three days after my mom passed away, I found a journal my mom was using to write down her life's memories. I had been looking for a keepsake journal that I knew she had, but I never found it. She must've gotten rid of it because she didn't care for the prompts but rather wanted to write whatever came to her mind instead. The journal is almost half full of memories. On the inside of the journal, she'd written: "I am writing this journal to record any memory of my life when I remember some event ..read more

  Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey The week after my mom passed away, I went to Erna Nixon Park, a nature park with a nice, boarded pathway. I walked it with my dad and stepmom as a distraction, to get out of the house, and to be in nature. Before I left, I sat down on a bench in a little tree nook and spoke out loud to my mom. I don't remember what I said. Maybe I apologized for my what I regretted and felt guilty about, as I had times before then and times after that. I might've just told her I loved her and missed her. Or I did a combination of all of that. Either way, what I ..read more

  Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey Miracle Moments are those times after someone passes away, when in the midst of your grief, something happens to bring you peace or happiness or calm, that can make you feel connected to your loved one and give you hope, and even make guilt and regret vanish. FIRST MIRACLE MOMENT: I experienced my first miracle moment on March 16th (13 days after my mom had passed away). I was having a really hard time. I was in my mom's bedroom, lying on her bed, hugging myself and sobbing. Since my mom had passed away, I'd been stepping into her room occasional ..read more

  Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey A few weeks after my mom passed away last year (2023), I found a small bucket of stones my mom had hand-painted to look like ladybugs. She had wanted to use them as swag at book events. Either as is or to turn them into magnets. I decided to leave them in random places for strangers to find, hoping they’d bring a smile to someone’s face. Or bring others a little luck. I think she would’ve liked the idea of her ladybug stones decorating the city for people to discover by chance, like treasure left behind by fairies. (I’m the fairy.)  There wer ..read more

  Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey One of the first things I did after my mom passed away was go through her recipes. I was looking for her best recipes as well as things I could make myself. The recipes that I did not keep—which were just magazine recipes or recipes she jotted down from cookbooks—I gave to my siblings to go through and take what they wanted. I made copies of all of my mom's special recipes and gave them to my siblings. The first meal I made myself was a cottage pie recipe that calls for beer (I used non-alcoholic beer because that’s what I had). It was yummy. Then ..read more

  Theme: Grief Work and Healing Journey I started a full-time job in June, three months after my mom passed away. Before then, I was a stay-at-home writer, fully disabled under the law. However, living on my own required me to get a job in order to survive. I applied to more jobs than I can tell you and interviewed for a few that ended up not being right for my needs. The job I landed was actually advertised in a local Facebook group my sister is a member of. She sent me the post. I contacted the person who advertised the job, got an interview with the owner, vice president and general ..read more