Jun 08
Two very special dates occurred recently – graduation of the class of 2012 on Friday (May 25), and Memorial Day last Monday (May 28) – one a joyous celebration of accomplishment, the other a heartfelt tribute to tremendous loss. I attended graduation last Friday; once again a proud mother watched her daughter cross the stage …
Sep 01
I go through my life now quite differently from before. I am a changed creature since the death of my daughter. On a regular, frequent basis, I find I need to examine what it means to grieve. Days, weeks go by and I am “fine.” Then one day my feelings well up, unfocused and un-namable, …
Apr 12
My cherished daughter died in May of 2008. She had just finished her sophomore year in college. Late that summer, I traveled to her college to gather her belongings and to hold an informal memorial for her friends and professors. It was a very difficult trip to make. I was only in Portland, Oregon, for …
Mar 01
I am in a holding pattern. After spending months going through interviews, training classes, home visits, paperwork nightmares, background checks and so much more, I am finally both licensed for foster care and certified for adoption. Those designations came within a couple of weeks of each other about a month ago. I celebrated, thinking I …
Jan 28
Time heals, they say. In my experience, time does not heal exactly, but it does help some scar tissue form. It helps the wound from being so excruciating and bloody. My daughter died in May of 2008. In the first weeks and months I clung desperately to time. I counted days, then weeks, finally months, …
