Grappling with Grief

No Silver Lining: Sarah Risser

By Sarah Risser   I was wrapped in a shroud of exhaustion. It was already the darkest time of year; the sun set late in the afternoon before most people sat down to dinner. Night after night for weeks, from mid-January through the end of that bitter, cold, Minnesota winter, I buried myself under blankets […]

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Tragedy to Triumph: Jody LaVoie

By Jody LaVoie   July 31, 2014, was just another beautiful, sunny summer day in the suburbs of Chicago. I would have never guessed when I woke up that morning and kissed my husband goodbye as he went off to work that it would be the day that the world would forever change for me, […]

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A Lifetime of Grief: Jean Brunson

By Jean Brunson   For 279 days, grief has become a constant in my everyday life — a space where I was once familiar but not to this magnitude. My very first experience with grief was losing my grandmother at the age of 14. The matriarch of the family I’d have the honor of caring […]

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An Angsty Teen and a Grieving Heart

By Kara Nichols   For 14 years, I had the joy of being a daddy’s girl. He was (and still is) my hero. A hard-working man, who loved his family dearly. Strong, gentle and kind-hearted. His jokes and smile alone could light up a room. Truly the human form of sunshine in my opinion. From […]

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Grieving Is Breathing: Tim Harris

By Tim Harris   “Tears are what remain of the memories we made.” I never really thought about this when I wrote it some years ago, but the more it sat in my mind, and the more I meditated on this thought, grief is an ever-evolving part of our lives. We all can remember the […]

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My Search for Positivity in Grief

By Claire Carmalt   People often say they can’t imagine losing their child. Nothing in life prepares you for such a loss, it’s shattering and changes your life as you knew it. Something that I found out when my daughter Tory died suddenly in October 2022 at aged 20. I never imagined that anything like […]

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Grieving Gal: Adele Di Paola

By Adele Di Paola   MY DAD Ralph Di Paola was my father and my hero. My admiration for him knows no bounds. I can genuinely say that during my lifetime he wore many hats with ease. He was my best friend, my guide, my protector, my biggest champion, my financial advisor, my therapist… but […]

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Livvy’s Smile & Daniel’s Gift: Sara Meredith

By Sara Meredith   My name is Sara and unfortunately due to this crazy thing we call life I have become an expert on grief and child loss, both I had no desire to know so well. On November 7, 2008, I walked into my daughters bedroom at 4:00 a.m. to find her not breathing. […]

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The Loss of Your Mother: Michelle Ozanne

By Michelle Ozanne   The day my life changed forever forward was October 1, 2022. It was a Saturday. The night before I had a call from my dad telling me Mum wasn’t herself, he thought she was having a breakdown. I told him I would be straight there, but he assured me she was […]

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12 Things I Learned After Becoming a Widow

By Leo Donnell   My name is Leo Donnell, and I am the founder of One Happy Widow. I help widowed people pivot from grief to growth in their life after loss. In 2017, I was married and raising four children with my husband Dewey. He was only 42, but had already been discharged from […]

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