Personal Essays

He’s Dead, But He’s No Saint

By

My husband cheated on me again and again — but people give him a pass because he died in a tragic Thanksgiving Day scuba accident.

Giving Birth at the Age Mom Died

By

I had my children young, keeping in mind that my own mother died 46. Now I’m 46, missing my mother, grieving my 12-year-old son, and also happily, unexpectedly pregnant.

The Stillbirth Status Updates I Really Wanted to Write

By

Here's what I really wanted to write about my pregnancy loss: mother of two, one living.

Speak for Your Self

By

My sister had a right to be stubborn in facing terminal cancer — even if the rest of us disagreed with her choices.

Scarlett O’Hara, Grief Counselor

By

The "Gone with the Wind" character taught me a powerful coping mechanism for dealing with my mother's loss.

Timehopping My Way Through Life and Death

By

How the tech tool keeps screwing with my emotions. And why I can't say I hate it.

Will I Still Be Funny?

By

My family thrived on potty humor, but after my dad died I wondered if we'd ever again laugh with abandon.

A Cancer Battle, Then a Miscarriage

By

After my mother died of cancer, the hope of bringing a new life into this world kept me afloat. Then I got some very bad news.

Two Truths and a Lie

By

My daughter's class exercise reminded me that kids carry their loss everywhere, even to school.

Coming Out of the Grief Closet

By

I'm a bereavement 'expert' who publicly hid my feelings after going from pregnant to grieving in a matter of hours. Until now.

Workshopping My Grief

By

My classmates were poring over my essay about my grandmother’s murder. As a writer, I’ve never felt more vulnerable.

Cleaning a Home after Loss with Avoidance and Humor

By

After my mother died, I could barely bring myself to go through her belongings. Here's how I got through it.

Lost, Not Found

By

After entering foster care, I got used to losing physical things. But my mother's death isn't a loss -- it's an event, an experience that defies language.

Meet Patricia, Aunt Esther’s Amazon Alter Ego

By

It was only after my aunt's death that I really got to know her -- through hundreds of Amazon.com product reviews.

Chicken Chow Found

By

I've spent years attempting to rebuild my dad's favorite recipe. And with a simple wok, I've connected our family with him anew.

Signs Of Life

By

I'm an EMT volunteer who knew the paramedics 'working my mother.' Finally reboarding an ambulance a year after her death, I discovered a new dimension to my service.

Choosing Legoland

By

My mother lay dying mere weeks after my husband's death. But this time, I had some control over how my family experienced the loss.

Wills and Grace

By

The long-delayed process of drafting my will was even more painful than I expected. We don’t really need this, I kept thinking. Doing a will is for other people. People who die.

Close to the Clouds

By

My husband's ashes in tow, I summited the mountain we'd loved to bring him 'home'. I found my own solace there, amongst the trees and solid rock.

Could Everybody Stop Trying to Pretty Up Death? It’s Not Working.

By

Language that denies the mess of death also denies the grieving the chance to be messy.

1 … 13 14 15 16 17 … 22