I Am A Griever

The Reflection Room® project: How storytelling supports processing grief

The Reflection Room project is an evidence-based participatory art installation that was developed by researchers at the SE Research Centre and Memorial University in 2016. The project included a research component that evaluated the impact of Reflection Rooms as the project adapted over time to address changing needs.

John – Lasagna

John talks about the “widower’s meal”… Lasagna, and learning how to cook for his daughters after his wife died

Joyce – When you are a mother who loses a child

Joyce shares about how she has felt as a mother who lost a child

Jessica’s Reflections as an Adult Grieving Child

Parents or trusted adults are people children often turn to for support, but my circle of trusted adults was shrinking. My peers were focused on what to wear on civvies day (a day where we didn’t have to wear a uniform), while I was focused on just surviving.

Kate – Trust and listening

Kate – explains how having someone you trust is super important so that you can have a space space to go to

Angie – Cumulative grief, cumulative trauma

Angie discusses the challenges of policing and how trauma and grief can accumulate

Lyss – Writing Songs and Words

Lyss shares about how writing songs and words has helped her with intense feelings

Joyce – Your other children

Joyce discusses how her daughter dealt helped her as well as dealing with the loss of her brother.

Grief and Parenting in the Disability Community

In this blog post, Carrie writes about being the parent and primary caregiver to a child with disabilities and grieving the loss of a child dying from their disabilities.

Jim – When should you seek help

Jim talks about when you should seek help for mental health. How it can be difficult to ask for help, especially for men and for people in certain professions, such as law enforcement and the military. But if you are struggling, it is important to reach out for support

Grief & Ice Cream

When my wife of 18 years died in 2016, I became a single father missing the love of my life, and also had to learn how to raise two girls (13-17 at the time) on my own. I remember a conversation I had with my mother-in-law and oldest daughter that began as reminiscing over a person who became a lost love to all of us. We all talked about different aspects of my wife but shortly, it transformed into a “who meant more to her” fest.

John – Support over time

John discusses how support changes over time