It's 4 am and my brain's been awake since I rolled over at 2. Despite completing my last round of chemotherapy yesterday, the exhausting side effects that are already beginning, and the sleeping medicine my oncologist finally prescribed, it seems I'm destined not to sleep. Why?...
It's been many years since my youngest sister died, and almost ten since my closest sister died. It's been years since my two grandfathers died, since my one aunt died, since my many grandparents-in-law died, and 8 years since my precious father-in-law died. It's been...
Today, October 17th, is “Shannon day,” the day my sister died, eight years ago. When Shannon died, it was so unexpected, so traumatic, so tragic, so unbelievable, it sent my entire family reeling for years. Not only did we inherit our nephews and have a...
Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, a day for families to remember the loss of their baby. Whether through miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death, the loss of a baby is one of the most difficult experiences a mother, father, and family can go through, and...
Birthdays and death anniversary days have been on my mind. Monday was my sister, Shannon’s, birthday. She would have been thirty-nine. Thirty-nine! It’s hard to imagine. She’s forever frozen in my memory at thirty-one. My youngest sister, Miki, who died twenty-two years ago, is forever frozen...
I am no stranger to death and suicide. My sister died of an overdose of alcohol and acetaminophen in 2007, leaving behind her two young sons whom my husband and I are now raising. We’d already lost my brother-in-law to skin cancer just months before,...
[caption id="attachment_1266" align="alignleft" width="300"] My sister, Shannon, and I at ages 3 and 4. I miss and love her dearly every day.[/caption] I love this picture of my sister, Shannon, and me. I have it in a frame in my living room. Only 16 months apart,...
Like the changing seasons, loss comes to all, whether through death, illness, children leaving home, loss of career or money, divorce, miscarriage, infertility, trauma, or even the symbolic losses of identity, innocence, or security. Each primary loss carries secondary losses, such as the loss of...