Healthy Ways to Navigate Your Grief

Even though my dad was hooked up to the most high-tech ventilator in the hospital and had five chest tubes connected to his body, I thought he’d come home with us. Sure, the recovery wouldn’t be easy, but we’d take it slow, and eventually, he’d return to his healthy, energetic self. At his funeral, I really wanted to say something, to make everyone there understand just how kind-hearted, funny, playful, brave, and resilient my father was. This was a special person, and I yearned, a yearning that knotted my stomach, for others to feel that. Instead, I stayed silent as the rabbi read through paragraphs we’d provided, paragraphs that barely captured the beauty of my dad. When they picked me up from the airport, my aunt and cousin tried to warn me. But nothing could prepare me for what I saw when I walked into my grandmother’s apartment. My 5-foot-8 grandma weighed around 90 pounds. Her once rosy, full cheeks were hollow. I’d never seen her move so slowly. I usually had to almost jog to keep up with her pace. The bone cancer was whittling away her body, and all I wanted to do was drop to my knees and cry for days. That night, she hugged me and told me that she really wanted my mom to have her gold necklace when she died. At her funeral in February, New York City looked like a snow globe. The snowstorm started that morning, and we feared we’d have to cancel the service. As we stood by her grave and one by one dropped red roses onto her casket, the snowflakes starte...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: General Grief and Loss Mental Health and Wellness Relationships Self-Help Stress Source Type: blogs