Dealing with Grief and Fears

Eugenie was telling me how wonderful she felt. This was unusual and unexpected because she was in her early 70s and had several health challenges, but on this day she told me: “Something has shifted, and it’s all because I did something…

They say that time is a healer, but it is you who learns to heal, through time. You become a master of how to avoid the pain that seems to be in every cell in your body. You slowly learn that crying all day leads to constant headaches, fatigue…

I never thought about death much, other than as a concept, until my husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. Now, as I enter my 60th year, I’m very aware of the juxtaposition of life and death. It is simply impossible to have one without the other…

Good physical health is most often tied to a sense of good mental and emotional wellness. However, when challenging situations and circumstances happen in life, we are provided with a crossroads which can affect both mental…

“I don’t want to pay that amount of money for something I don’t want!” I screamed these words to the funeral director who sat opposite me on the sofa two days after my husband had died. Tears rolled down my cheeks, I felt beside myself with rage…

In working with 1,100 people living with dementia, I’ve found working with them is the easy part! It’s their families who are much more challenging. Typically, the whole family is pulling together to figure out how to manage day-to-day life, the ins and outs of care, and trying to plan ahead. The whole family, except for that one family member…

Rituals are actions that symbolically connect us to something that is meaningful. They can be comforting and can help us express feelings, bring about a sense of closure, or keep an important part of the past alive. Rituals mark time as well as create time…

The intensity and frequency of threatening events over the past few months has had a profound impact on me. Collectively, we seem to be humming at a higher level of stress that reflects a growing feeling that the world we once thought predicable…

My Mom, who had been diagnosed with dementia, was leaning up against the sink in the bathroom. Her soapy hands were under running water. I was reaching around her trying to gently use a nail brush to clean under her nails…

Lately, my friends have been decluttering their places and spaces. Good for them! Breaking FREE from our old stuff isn’t easy but it feels great when we do. It feels like a slice of freedom. Everything from closets and garages…