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Your Loved One’s Possessions Are More Than Just “Stuff” (Interview)
An interview with Rachel Kodanaz on sorting and repurposing their lifetime treasuresRachel Kodanaz is a seasoned writer, speaker, and motivator on the topic of life transitions, including grief. For over 20 years, Kodanaz has inspired audiences to embrace the challenges associated with the loss of a loved one. Her books, “Living with Loss One Day at a Time” and “Grief in the Workplace: A Comprehensive Guide…
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“Shade”
How memories of our loved ones elude time and spaceYou are present in the pastAnd appear in memory,A braid of smoke, a vapor,And silence is your substance.You are nothing, Yet you are.You wend along the wayTo a perfect destinyOn a whisper of the wind. The short poem “Shade,” by Pulitzer Prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, offers a glimpse of the manner in which our loved…
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“Steel Magnolias”
A film exploring the strong yet delicate bond of female friendshipsDirected by Herbert Ross, “Steel Magnolias” is the all-star 1989 dramedy based on the play by Robert Harling. Starring Dolly Parton, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, and Daryl Hannah, this ensemble film presents a slice-of-life in a small Louisiana town that centers on the women’s friendships, in particular the relationship between M’Lynn Eatenton…
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Keeping Pain Private After a Traumatic Death
Vanessa Bryant and Ashley Judd speak out about maintaining the privacy of the dead and those they leave behindOn August 25, 2022, a jury awarded $31 million to Vanessa Bryant and her co-plaintiff. The women sought justice following the tragic plane crash that took the lives of Bryant’s husband and daughter, among others. Bryant asserted that she was afraid to be confronted with the photographs that emergency service personnel had taken of the…
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“Paint It Black”
A decades-old rock song perfectly captures the raw nature of early griefThe song, “Paint It Black” by the British rockers the Rolling Stones, came out in 1966 to swiftly become a No. 1 hit both in England, the band’s home, and in the U.S. To this day, 66 years later, it is a staple of the band’s live shows. First issued on the band’s fourth album,…
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The Whys and Hows of Donating Your Brain To Science
A legacy that benefits future generationsAlthough most people are familiar with organ donation, few realize that donating your brain to science is not the same. Organs like kidney, heart or lungs can be harvested at time of death to be transplanted into a living person. A brain cannot be transplanted. But it can provide valuable medical insight post death. Donating…
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Spirituality Aids in Post-Traumatic Growth, Study Finds
Finding meaning in traumatic experiences reduces distress and aids personal growthAs being “trauma-informed” becomes increasingly recognized as essential to addressing mental and physical health issues in both ourselves and others, new research sheds light on how different approaches to trauma can help or harm us. A recent study from researchers at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, published in the journal PLOS ONE,…
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Gravestone Recipes Serve as Reminders of Lost Loved Ones
For these families, the connection between love and food survives after deathMany memories of the beloved dead seem to be tied to food – our lost loved one’s favorite recipes, what they baked and/or cooked, what they ate, and even what they brought to gatherings, even if they did not prepare the food themselves. At a small congregation in the California desert, a fit, active man…
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My Journey to Peace and Comfort in the Wake of My Mother’s Suicide
All my life I have been losing her to mental illnessThis is Kaitlin Grace’s story as told by Irena Kaci. Our Opening Our Hearts stories are based on people’s real-life experiences. By sharing these experiences publicly, we hope to help our readers feel less alone in their grief and, ultimately, to aid them in their healing process. In this story, Kaitlin Grace tells the story…
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