From the category archives:

Grieving

Miracles

Thumbnail image for Miracles February 24, 2010

Church can be a dangerous place for a grieving parent.
In his sermon Sunday, Father Bill mentioned some miracles. He started with several taken from the Bible, including the story of Christ raising a little dead girl back to life.
Father Bill then told us of a local family. One of the boy’s in the family was getting [...]

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Grieving Dad’s

Thumbnail image for Grieving Dad’s February 18, 2010

The following is from We Need Not Walk Alone, the national magazine of The Compassionate Friends.

The Father’s Grief The Father’s Grief
By David Pellegrin
TCF Honolulu, HI
At my second meeting of The Compassionate Friends about three years ago, one of the mothers said how nice it was to see a man attending, since “men grieve differently from women.”
Her [...]

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The Dream Fades

Thumbnail image for The Dream Fades February 1, 2010

They say all good things must end. And so it seems to be.
I had a dream a few weeks ago. It gave me a great sense of peace.
The feelings from the dream were strong, but they’re fading.
Lately I’ve been thinking about what it was like for Richard in those last moments.
How long did it take? [...]

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Footprints

Thumbnail image for Footprints January 13, 2010

I was in town this morning, so I went to the cemetery.
The cemetery had been closed on Sunday because of the snowy weather. Today it was open again.
As I left my car and started walking down the hill to Richard’s grave I looked out over the snow covered ground. There was one set of footprints. [...]

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Ambush

Thumbnail image for Ambush January 9, 2010

Debbie needed something for show-and-tell time at the next Compassionate Friends meeting. She was supposed to bring something that was important to Richard or something he was proud of. The idea was for everyone to show their item and tell the story about what it meant in the life of their child.
She asked me to [...]

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You Have No Idea How Much

Thumbnail image for You Have No Idea How Much January 7, 2010

Got snowed in today.
Debbie took the occasion to clean out the drawers in the kitchen cabinets.  In one of the drawers were many old greeting cards.
She handed me one.
It was a birthday card from Richard to me. The front of the card is above. The inside is below.

Yes Richard, it does get me right there.
I [...]

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Christmas Morning 2009

Thumbnail image for Christmas Morning 2009 December 25, 2009

Dear Richard,
It’s Christmas.
You’re not here. It’s not the same without you.
No country ham. We did have bacon, nice and crispy but not burnt.
Sarah passed out the gifts. You weren’t sitting cross-legged on the floor to get yours. Your stocking was empty. Unless you count all the thoughts of love that we sent out to you.
It [...]

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A Christmas Letter to God

Thumbnail image for A Christmas Letter to God December 15, 2009

Dear God,
I hope this letter finds you well. How are things in heaven? I hope all is going well. I guess they’d have to be pretty good, or they wouldn’t call it heaven would they?
Down here on earth they say you are all knowing and all powerful. That you never screw up. In fact they [...]

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The Trees Fall

Thumbnail image for The Trees Fall November 24, 2009

We’ve had our house for more than 25 years.  There is a huge maple tree beside the house. It’s not in very good shape. We’ve feared it would come crashing down on the house. For most of the 25 years we’ve been here, there’ve been plans to have that tree – and others – cut [...]

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Emotional Tug-of-War

Thumbnail image for Emotional Tug-of-War November 23, 2009

Last week was a bad week.
Maybe it was because the holidays are getting near- Thanksgiving is this week, Christmas just around the corner. Maybe it’s because they’ve been advertising the benefits of generic drugs at work – but they left out the dead kid benefit part of the story.
It could also be today is the [...]

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Saying Goodbye a Bit at a Time

Thumbnail image for Saying Goodbye a Bit at a Time November 20, 2009

I finally canceled Richard’s cell phone.
For nearly six months we’ve been paying for that phone. And it has just sat there on the divider between our kitchen and TV rooms doing nothing. No phone calls. No text messages. Nothing.
So why did we waste all that money?
Because it’s just hard as hell to let go of [...]

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I Just Want To Scream!

Thumbnail image for I Just Want To Scream! November 20, 2009

There have been times since Richard died that I want to scream. Very loudly, at the top of my lungs. In anger.
Yesterday at work was one of those times.
We are going through our annual process of signing up for benefits for next year. During this period they have various insurance and health care service providers [...]

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Full of Joy?

Thumbnail image for Full of Joy? October 27, 2009

The Responsorial Psalm at mass yesterday got my attention. It was:
“The Lord has done great things for us. We are filled with joy.”
Filled with joy?
It’s now been five months since Richard left us.
I’ll admit the Lord has done great things for us. And I’m grateful for them. Honest.
And I keep trying to figure out what [...]

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Questions with No Answers

Thumbnail image for Questions with No Answers October 23, 2009

The death of your child leaves you with a lot of questions.
There are lots of “what if” and “why didn’t I” type questions. The ones that come from that guilty feeling that you should have done something to prevent this.
But I have other questions. Questions I’ll never be able to answer.

The day before Richard died [...]

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Saying Thank You Shouldn’t Be So Tough

Thumbnail image for Saying Thank You Shouldn’t Be So Tough October 13, 2009

After Richard’s funeral we wrote thank you cards like crazy.
We sent one to just about everyone that signed our guest book at the funeral home. And to all the people that sent flowers or food. We sent out several huge piles.
We tried to avoid being too generic, and put personal notes in each card. We [...]

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The Four Month Report

Thumbnail image for The Four Month Report September 28, 2009

It has now been 4 months since the “official” date of Richard’s death.
Just thought I’d list a few observations about where we are in our grieving process.
I don’t cry as much. Not openly. I cry inside just as much. I still miss my kid.
Debbie and I go to work everyday. We’ve done this since about [...]

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The Big Game

Thumbnail image for The Big Game September 20, 2009

Richard was a big sports fan. His bedroom is decorated in Miami Dolphins colors. They were his favorite NFL team.
We had many sports talks. The sports minded members of my family are University of Kentucky fans. I went to school there in the 70’s . My parents had season tickets to the football games. My [...]

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Grieving Sucks

Thumbnail image for Grieving Sucks August 31, 2009

And grieving for a lost child takes pain to a whole new level.
This site is the story of our journey through grief for our lost son Richard. Therapy maybe.  Probably also share some stories about Richard. We were very proud of him and like all grieving parents, we don’t want him to be forgotten.
By sharing [...]

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Richard

Thumbnail image for Richard June 10, 2009

Here’s a quick tip for you.
If you miss a call on your phone, and don’t recognize the number, and when you call back they answer, “Fayette County Coroner” – your day is about to go in the toilet.
Mine did.
It got worse.
After apologizing for breaking the news to me over the phone, the coroner lady told [...]

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