I Am A Griever

Keeping Records

I pulled the photos out of their envelope one at a time, turning over each one to carefully record the date, place, and people in the photo. Sometimes, I included comments. “Apple picking in Hamilton with Pop Pop, Fall, 2023. You loved the wagon ride!”. I slipped each picture into an empty pocket in my son’s photo album.

Kristal – Activism To Ease Anger and Grief

Kristal discusses using activism to help ease or channel her anger from the loss of those in her community to drug poisoning. She talks about her grief being very quiet and inward before, but that taking action helps her to move through it. She discusses how there may not be peace from these losses, but the goal should rather be feeling safe in the emotions.

Jim – Helping by listening

Jim – ” I talk about how to be a good listener to someone who is grieving. I believe that one of the most important things you can do for someone who is grieving is to simply listen. Don’t try to fix their problems or offer advice. Just listen and be there for them. It can be as simple as meeting for coffee or taking a walk together. You’re doing more help than you realize when you simply listen to someone.

Jim – Triggers

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Jim discusses triggers, how to recognize them and develop coping mechanisms to help deal with the strong emotions that they can cause

Kristal – Anger with Grief

Kristal discusses finding ways to channel her anger due to poor policy leading to deaths from drug poisoning and those individuals not having the support they needed. She discusses how human beings have the right to be flawed and should have the ability to grow, heal, and change.

Jim – Police culture and grief

Jim talks about how grief is a natural part of life, but it can be especially difficult to deal with when you’re in the police culture. There’s a lot of pressure to bottle up your emotions and not show weakness, but that’s not healthy. It’s important to find healthy ways to cope with your grief, whether it’s talking to a therapist, joining a support group, or simply spending time with loved ones. You’re not alone, and there are people who care about you and want to help.

John – Empower yourself

John shares his thoughts about how to support someone in grief and his processes

What Can Help with Early Traumatic Grief?

When your child dies you are thrown into a nightmare. None of this is expected to be easy.
Even after several months, it still isn’t. There have been some things that have helped us during
our grief. Maybe they will help you, too.

John – Being helpful to someone in grief

John shares his thoughts on how to help someone in grief

Scott – Process and lyrics

Scott talks about his process with lyrics and how his song “So far away” was for his mother in law. Find the song at his website www.dotbmusic.ca

Betsy – Adoption and grief

Betsy tell her story of losing her adopted son to cancer

Caileigh – Advice to my younger self about grief

Caileigh talks about things that you can do to balance out feelings that it’s okay to experience all of the big feelings that you have, to find joy in little moments, and to find ways that you can cope with those big feelings.