Grief... is so darn messy. Right? I made a promise to myself after my brother died, that when grief decided to come for a visit, I would...

If I could do anything over again It would be to spend more time with you But that’s not how things work in this thing called life I...

As I write this blog it is the seventh anniversary of my sister Laura's death. I cannot tell you how many times I have said, "if I only...

Because of the losses I have experienced personally over the years I am acutely aware of how long grief lasts, and that it never ends. I...

When someone asks me how I am doing, I fight responding with an “I am fine,” because in my head it comes out in a high-pitched whiny...

Every day someone asks me how I am doing, and every day I think of creative ways to avoid saying, "I am fine." It is such an easy thing...

Does it sometimes surprise you the things people say to comfort someone who is navigating illness, accident, death, or grief for...

Grief is a teeter-totter Grief can't seem to make up it's mind Grief has a million different colors One minute I am fine... moving...

He had such a good day, or so it seemed. So many little moments of improvement and heightened hope that he might really pull through...

As I write this, my brother has been in the ICU for two weeks, and to be honest, I was afraid he was not going to make it. I had prepared...

About a week ago, on my sisters birthday (who has been gone seven years), I received a phone call from my other sister that our brother...

I was talking to someone recently who shared the struggles she was having on the first anniversary of the death of her husband. She said...

When I am supporting a family or caregiver for a patient who is dying, I often say... meet them where they are, not where you think they...

Today I followed the gurney of a young woman who died, out to the car. We scattered pink rose petals on her as she was rolled out, and we...

One morning about 5:30am I was woken from a deep sleep by what felt like a touch on my shoulder. At first I thought it was one of my cats...

A woman who recently lost her mother, reached out to me to ask how she can help a friend who was trying to navigate the impending death...

Someone asked me what grief feels like... I told her that some days it will take everything you have to get out of bed. You might go days...

One of the things I am realizing people struggle with most is not being at the bedside when that last breath is taken. Some people are...

I often joke that no one asks me how my day is because they are afraid I might actually tell them. The truth is, most people don't want to talk about what I do every day because what I do requires us to acknowledge something many of us spend our lives trying to avoid: death. It remains the elephant in the room, not because it is rare, but because it is universal. Yet I have always believed that if we talked about death more openly, it would lose some of its power to frighten

I was going through a few boxes of old photos that also included cards and notes I felt compelled to save for thirty-plus years, and came...