“Grieving triggers a range of spiritual questions. We ask why ‘this’ happened to us. Why did it happen now? We want to know why we must endure such anguish and how long must we suffer. When our security is threatened, it’s not unusual to begin a dance with God. We bargain that we will do […]
Life goes on. Our loved ones pass and it’s a day, a week, a year. Before we know it, it’s 21 years since we last kissed their cheek, as it is with my mother. Our loved ones are frozen in time. We remember them just as we saw them last. But we keep growing older, […]
Marshall passed away 8 months ago today. His passage still disturbs me. Witnessing such a strong, active man decline over more than 15 years and then in the end to become so very frail, dependent on total care for every basic need, retching from drug withdrawal, and unable to communicate, was death by a thousand […]
We don’t want to talk or think about it. It’s rarely pretty. Some fear what happens afterwards, and we’d rather cling to what we do know, even if it’s not all that great. Death scares most of us, partly due to the fact that those of us who witness loved ones dying often see them […]
It’s an unusual kind of mourning. Friends who lost a loved-one to dementia before me told me that the mourning period after death would be different than typically occurs. It isn’t as if our loved one suddenly died in an accident or suffered from a physical illness where we could still speak with them until […]
If you died today, how would your obituary read? How is this different from the way you would like it to be? Death is indiscriminate. It is inevitable and can come at any moment. Honestly assessing our lives from time-to-time, and acknowledging our mortality is not morbid. It’s realistic and prompts opportunities to reflect on our readiness to meet […]
Mary K. Doyle
Recent Comments