Dealing With My Grief

This episode in dedicated to the memory of my cousin, Chris. Last week Facebook brought up a memory in the form of a picture of me with chipped teeth when I was about 12 or 13. I had chipped my teeth playing a game with my friends. The pain of the fall I took didn't last long but eating or drinking was difficult to say the least as I would get a crazy sensation that would run through my mouth. Dea...

No into/outro music today... Just the bare bone basics to produce this podcast. Why?... Because a listener wanted to know how to get back to "normal" after grief. What is the new structure of life or their day going to look like. Sometimes we don't need to put on the window dressing to mask how we feel in our grief. It's not essential to who we are and how we really feel. So I used no music in the...

Ellen Threatts is the author of Four Seasons of Love and Grief. A native of Youngsville, LA Ms. Threatts works, volunteers, plays and writes about community, life, loss, healing and loving those around. While working with those who suffer from mental health issues compassion and servitude cemented the idea of her creating a non-profit for grieving adults and children. While still in its early stag...

Special Announcement: You can now support the show by shopping on Amazon with this link: https://amzn.to/2JM5LjT Dealing With My Grief  is now an Amazon associate and as an associate I earn from purchases you make on Amazon. You pay nothing extra ... just shop on Amazon by using the above link. The small commission I receive will help fund the show! Thank you!!! In other breaking news, I'm now on...

Special Announcement: You can now support the show by shopping on Amazon with this link: https://amzn.to/2JM5LjT Dealing With My Grief  is now an Amazon associate and as an associate I earn from purchases you make on Amazon. You pay nothing extra ... just shop on Amazon by using the above link. The small commission I receive will help fund the show! Thank you!!! Now back to our regularly scheduled...

Special Announcement: You can now support the show by shopping on Amazon with this link: https://amzn.to/2JM5LjT Dealing With My Grief  is now an Amazon associate and as an associate I earn from purchases you make on Amazon. You pay nothing extra ... just shop on Amazon by using the above link. The small commission I receive will help fund the show! Thank you!!! Now back to our regular program: So...

My grandfather loved 3 things; dying eggs at Easter, making ice cream, and making wine. A few years ago I decided I would stasrt making wine using some of his recipes. While my mother was here, I decided I'd start a batch of wine using one of his recipes with her help. It was a great time together. We shared fond memories of him while doing something that he loved to do! Then as I often do, I star...

I didn't get an opportunity to record an episode last weekend... After going through a week where I lost my ATM card and went through hell to get home from a simple surprise trip on Mother's Day, I had a tree branch fall through - yes through the roof of my house! Trying to get that fixed and prepare for my mother's visit - coupled with the loss of electricity for several hours just didn't afford...

This past weekend, I surprised my mother for Mother's Day on what was supposed to be a very short mainly uneventful weekend. However, trying to get back to DC turned out to be nightmarish: I had to fix a lock I inadvertently broke My debit card got eaten by an ATM machine My flight got cancelled - TWICE - and delayed TWICE! After finally getting on a plane 28 hours after I was originally scheduled...

As I look through my phone, I have come across the names of 3 individuals who've died... one as long as 10 years ago! But no matter how hard I've tried, I can't bring it upon myself to delete their contact information from my phone. I know they aren't coming back... I've watched them be burried. I'v been to their homes and kne that they aren't on this earth any longer! I just don't know why there...

Sometimes I have to pay what I owe... I lost a bet to my Canadian friends from the Grief Dreams podcast (griefdreams.ca) and now I have to pay up! We had a bet on the first round NBA basketball playoff series between the Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors. Whoever's team lost team lost would have to congratulate the other team on their victory in their podcast. And now I must do just that... C...

April 24, 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of my dad's death... April 25 would have been my parents 54th wedding anniversary. I thought today would be a very painful one for me. But the words of a priest honoring someone else's loved one would touch me in ways that I couldn't imagine. His words took the sting out of the pain. I decided to homer my dad by hosting a Facebook live event in the Grief R...

Today I have the honor of speaking with someone about loss as a result of suicide... Sebastian Slovin grew up in La Jolla, California and traveled extensively as a professional bodyboarder. As a young boy, Sebastian lost his father to suicide, which would later deeply inspire his path in life. He holds a BA in Environmental Policy from San Diego State University and an MA in Leadership Studies fro...

Before I get started, I have an announcement... Dealing With My Grief is now an award winning podcast!! It won a Silver Award in the Podcasting category at DC Web Fest (dcwebfest.org) held on April 6-7, 2018. Thank you for the recognition... the voices of those struggling with and persevering through grief are being heard! Thanks to Oren Levine for the music and Will Friday for the cover art. And...

Dave Jackson is the host of School of Podcasting and was the inspiration behind me using podcasting as the medium of getting my grief story out into the world. The thing that drew me to Dave is the fact that talk a lot about his personal life and how lessons he has learned in life, especially from his mother can be applied to podcasting... as well as other podcast topics that he entertains. In thi...

Repetition is the mother of learning... In this regard, what I say this week is something I have said in different episodes of this podcast at some point in time. Grief isn't something you get over, you get through it. In coping with my own loss, I have found that facing my demons and looking at life with a different perspective have allowed my to come through my greif experience a better person....

Erin Donovan is a documentary film producer who lost her mother suddenly in 2015 as the result of a car accident. In this episode she discusses dealing with not only her mother's death, but also it's aftermath... managing her mother's estate, fending of lawsuits, as well as keeping family members at bay. Yoga, therapy and friends would play a big part in helping Erin manage daily life after suffer...

Last week I had no internet so as a bonus, I posted an interview for the Coming Back podcast. Shelby forsythia has me as a guest on her show and we has a great time talking about perspective, chess, and photo albums! Check out our conversation here: http://www.shelbyforsythia.com/podcast/38 This week I reflect on things I would say from the perspective of a 50 year old. Knowing what I know now, my...

This week I had the opportunity to speak with Shelby Forsythia on her podcast, 'Coming Back'. Somehow I always feel better when I get to share my lost story and people are genuinely interested in parts of my story I really haven't discussed previously.

Sheaya Biddle is a former (and maybe soon to be) podcaster, future author and creator of the Facebook group 'Grief Resilience'. The group stresses positivity in the face of copy with grief and loss. This week I discus the loss of Sheaya's mother and the grief shaming that ensued and how she was able to cope with that by having close friends and building community. Join Sheaya's Facebook group: htt...

100 episodes should be cause for celebration, but unfortunately a tragedy was unfolding in a Florida high school shortly after I released my previous episode of this podcast. The question I ask myself is, "Why did this young man commit this crime?" My conclusions may be a little surprising.  Subscribe to this podcast by using one of the following: Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click h...

I've had it this week. In Reddit, Facebook, other podcasts... I've heard people tell others that they should be over their grief. IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE! PERIOD. I'ms still so upset, I cam barely type. Grief isn't something that you get over. You have to learn the deal with the emotions the you get hit with as you go through life as you are constantly reminded that you must live without someone you...

Shelby Forsythia is an Intuitive Grief Guide and host of the podcast Coming Back: Conversations on life after loss. After her mom's death in 2013, she became what she calls a "student of grief" and now writes, speaks, and teaches others about the transformational power of grief and loss. Shelby is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist® and Reiki Practitioner. This week I had an opportunity to spea...

When I was 10, I lost my grandfather, dad, and an uncle in an 8-10 month time span. About 3 years later I heard the phrase "Death comes in threes" for the first time. Then in August/September of 1985 it happened again: my grandmother, grandfather and an aunt... followed by the death of a cousin in early 1986.   I used to spend a lot of time following the death of a loved one trying to figure out w...

Thanks to the kind words obout last week's interview with my mo.... I appreciate the positive feedback. A listener asked about how we can talk to kids about grief. Her first experience was a negative one because no set any type of expectations around the funeral ritual in her family. I believe this stems from society changing from dealing with caring for the sick and dying to at home to the Civil...