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Music Can Ease the Dying Process
Soothing sounds promote relaxation and pain reduction in patientsWitnessing a dying person firsthand is a life-changing experience, and one I wish I had been better prepared for as I sat with my mother on her death day. In those final hours, I combed my mind for ways to ease her transition. Even though she was mostly unresponsive, I know she could hear my…
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“Everybody Made Soups”
A poet explores the possibility of finding peace amid both loss and plentyAfter it all, the events of the holidays,the dinner tables passing like great ships,everybody made soups for a while.Cooked and cooked until the broth keptthe story of the onion, the weeping meat.It was over, the year was spent, the new onehad yet to make its demands on us,each day lay in the dark like a…
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“Slipped Away”
The “Pop Punk Queen” sings about the day she learned her grandfather diedOne of the most serious songs Avril Lavigne has ever penned is “Slipped Away,” which tells listeners about how she felt when she learned the news of her grandfather’s death. It was 2003, and she was on her Try To Shut Me Up tour after the release of her first album, Let Go, when she…
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Mindfulness Can Help Us Through Holiday Grief (Interview)
An Interview with Andrew J. Vitale, C.T. on grieving, coping and celebratingAndrew J. Vitale, C.T. has been a grief specialist for more than three decades. As a certified thanatologist, Vitale studies the science of death, dying and bereavement including medical, physical, psychological and spiritual perspectives. This professional focus includes the psychological and social mechanisms regarding personal views and reactions to our own mortality, as well as…
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Maya Lin’s “Ghost Forest” Evokes Climate-Related Loss
Installation artist explores the loss of vibrant forests to climate changeArtist Maya Lin is known for her environmental installations and is widely recognized for her Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Now, she has created a haunting new exhibit: “Ghost Forest” at Madison Square Park Conservancy in New York. Forty-nine white Atlantic cedar trees are spaced evenly apart; their 40-foot presence symbolizing the towering devastation…
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“The Language of Loss”
A moving anthology of prose and poetry about the long journey through griefWhen author Barbara Abercrombie’s husband died, she found the condolence messages of friends and loved ones hollow and meaningless. “My husband had not gone off to a better place as if he was off on holiday,” she writes. “He had not passed like clouds overhead, nor was he my ‘late’ husband as if he had…
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New Report Identifies Cancer Risk Hot Zones Around the Country
ProPublica investigation of EPA data shows 250k Americans exposed to carcinogenic pollutionA new report shines a light on how industrial sites are exposing Americans to cancer-causing pollutants at a much higher rate than the EPA considers acceptable. The nonprofit newsroom ProPublica examined EPA reported data and found that a quarter of a million Americans are exposed to air pollution deemed to cause an “unacceptable risk” for…
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“Beeing” on the Brink of Death – and How It Changed Me
The trauma, terror, and triumph of recovering after a near-death experienceThis is Rebecca’s story as told to Melissa Gouty. 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, Rebecca recounts the trauma, terror, and…
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