As I have a look at shame in another part of my blog I would also like to talk to you about loss and grief. I hope you will join with me in exploring grief and loss, so that others may be helped by our shared experiences. I wrote some articles years ago in a local magazine, The Tipp Tatler, when the anniversary of the death of my youngest child, Cathal, came around. By coincidence this anniversary is again approaching on February 18th. Cathal was killed off his bike near our house on Februrary 18th 1990. My family and I wrote a book on how it impacted on us, and you can download a chapter of the book on the website, if you wish to get a deeper insight into its impact. For the moment, however, I just wish to talk to you about grief.
I will look at loss which does not always mean death. People may experience loss when they retire, especially if they are forced to retire through ill health, they experience loss if their health fails, if a relationship breaks down; children experience loss at the death of pets, and so on. Indeed, the word bereavement comes from the word ‘reave’, which means to be dispossessed or robbed of something.
So, for the moment I will look at normal grieving, and later at delayed or complicated grief, which normally requires counselling to unravel.
Tags: bereavement, grief, loss