Supporting Others

Ghosts From The Past

I met Holly riding the bus in our community. She is very attractive with a winsome smile and piercing eyes that I would trade anything for. She was also the bus driver. At that time Holly went to school to become a nurse. After becoming a nurse, Holly didn’t drive the bus that much, but one of her fellow bus drivers mentioned to me that one of Holly’s patients had died and it had a negative impact on her. It brought back ghosts from my past as I also had a job in which people died which had a negative impact on me.

Betsy – Adoption and grief

Betsy tell her story of losing her adopted son to cancer

Caileigh – A safe place to grow and heal

Caileigh talks about how accessing play therapy can support everybody. When children have that safe place to heal, everybody around them feels good and can heal, too.

Zoreena – Support systems

Zoreena explains the importance of support systems

John – Support over time

John discusses how support changes over time

Michele – Talks about being a death doula

Michele explains what death doula’s do. Doula means servant. They support people on many different levels… for instance, emotionally, spiritually and physically

Janice – “The importance of listening”

Janice explains the importance of not being judgemental and listening when helping someone is in grief.

Joyce- Learning to live with grief

Joyce shares a story of support from a friend and how she managed in her early grief

John Martin – Coping with grief part 2

John talks gives some pointers to help cope with loss

Grief, Breastfeeding, and Care

In this essay, I share a bit about my story of grief and breastfeeding. I also share some thoughts about the cultural grief some people are carrying about the lack of support afforded to lactating families whose goal it is to feed their baby from their body. I use some gendered language throughout this essay…

Michele – Covid and support

Michele defines expressive arts and how they can help healing in griefMIchele talks about COVID restrictions, technology and ways to support

What I know about grief

The following are some things I know to be true about grief for me, based on my lived experience. Some of them may resonate with you as well. Grief is unique to the people experiencing it in each moment, so please take whatever makes sense to you from this share and leave whatever doesn’t.