Back to School: A Guardian’s Guide to Helping a Grieving Child

As I discussed in my last blog post, my dad died on the fourth day of fourth grade.  I took days four through nine off from school and Monday I was expected to go back. “What? My dad just died. I’m not leaving my mom for 7 hours a day to just go to school.…

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4th Day of Fourth Grade

In August 2000, I went back to school on August 4th.  It was a Thursday and my dad had been in the hospital for almost 10 months straight. At this point, he had suffered from two heart attacks and multiple organs had started to fail.  My mom and I were guessing his time left on…

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The Keepsakes

Throughout our relationships with people, we hold onto little things. A movie stub from seeing a movie you both loved, pictures, or a special birthday card are just some of the small keepsakes we hold onto. When our loved one dies, we tend to put these items all in one place and tuck it away. Our…

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Keeping the Traditions

It’s July, which means for some this is a weird time to talk about traditions.  Normally topics of tradition come up during the Holiday season, but what about the traditions in the other times of the year? Those are traditions we don’t seem to acknowledge during other times of the year are important too. My…

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