When Compensation shouldn’t mean money

Posted on 26th June 2012 at 12:39

Last night I sat dumbfounded in front of the TV. I’m often frustrated by inaccurate portrayal of grief but the programme I saw last night seemingly wasn’t about grief, it was about bad practice at the nation’s biggest chain of funeral homes – The Co-op.

Life, Loss & Lemonade

Posted on 7th February 2012 at 12:10

I was with a friend last week who suddenly said to me, “ Carole you’re the best lemonade maker I know.” This caught me by surprise and I raised my eyebrows at her accordingly – after all we were sitting drinking tea on a very cold winter’s day. The last thing I’d been thinking of was lemonade.

Seeing my quizzical look she explained – you know that expression “when life gives you lemons make lemonade” Well you always seem to be able to find the positive in any situation. That set me thinking.

How to cope with Christmas when you're grieving.

Posted on 9th December 2011 at 12:49

Yes it’s that time of year again. Christmas. Some of you reading this will be facing your first Christmas alone and wondering how on earth you’re going to cope. Others will be wondering how on earth they’re going to cope this time.

Many people will noticing a person shaped hole in their heart many years after the loss.

The Magic of Forgiveness

Posted on 5th December 2011 at 13:01

Saturday night is a time when I like to curl up on my sofa, dogs on my feet and be entertained, like many people in these tough times that means switching on the TV rather than going out and one of my current favourites is the programme “Merlin”. An amusing nonsense about the young wizard and a young King Arthur, generally there’s a moral about doing the right thing but it’s fairly light handed. This week though, there was a moment near the end that I found really profound. If you haven’t seen it yet and want to – stop reading now!

Is recovery really possible?

Posted on 23rd November 2011 at 13:33

In the last post I talked about one of the myths about Grief, the idea that time heals. This time I thought I’d share a question we get asked regularly at Grief Recovery this from Sharon is typical:

“Do we ever really “recover”? It is almost four years since I lost my husband to liver disease. The holidays are still difficult to bear. He would have just had a birthday on which I did not have a good day. I can’t celebrate my birthday anymore as he died on this day. Don’t we just deal with it more so than recover from it?”

Our Reply:

Time Heals?

Posted on 6th September 2011 at 13:07

One of the first things I heard said to me after my husband died was “time is a great healer”. I was always struck dumb by this comment – I found the idea that I had to wait for time to come and fix me odd even though I’ve been hearing that assertion for years.

Then by chance I came across the Grief Recovery Handbook by John James and Russell Friedman and suddenly here was someone talking sense!