Death of a Partner

Karyn and Aidan – Support from others

Karyn and Aidan discuss how family, friends, and people they didn’t know in the community supported them.Talking, meals, dog walking are among the things that made a huge difference.

Shannon – Losing is a life skill

Shannon shares about losing her husband to suicide, her parents and her father-in-law. She felt broken and to be able to take care of her kids and her self seemed overwhelming. It took someone telling her that you can heal from trauma to give her hope for healing.

Mary S – Grief is not the enemy

Mary talks about embracing grief is love

Mary S – The value of writing

Mary talks about how much writing has helped inlcuding writing what her partner would have said

Mary S – Dogs

Mary talks about how special dogs are and how much they helped her grief

Shannon – Guilt vs Shame

Shannon talks about guilt can be a part of the grieving process but shame has to do with “is there something wrong with me”

Holly – The symbolic nature of death

Holly discusses doing art, the symbolic nature of urns and the denial of death

Collective Grief

When the death of a person affects many members in a community, city, country, or across the world, people will experience collective grief.

These are some things that can help people through the experience of collective grief across a community.

Cheryl B – My story

Cheryl discusses her husbands mental illness and then death from a heart attack

Shannon – Growing through Grief

Shannon discusses post traumatic growth and how it can be an expectation

Andrea – Couples versus being single

Andrea talks about becoming single when her husband died

Mary S – Coping with multiple loss

Mary explains the challenges of dealing with the death of her partner and then her parents