Compassionate Friends

There’s a phrase I used to hear all the time:
“Grief is just a season.”

At first, I clung to it like a lifeline. A season meant temporary. A season meant there would be an end. A season meant I could eventually go back to who I was before the loss.
But now, twenty-five years after losing my son Drew, I know better.

Grief is not a season.

Back when the dinosaurs roamed the plains, I took a course in Developmental Psychology. We learned that each stage of life had certain tasks that had to be accomplished as part of human growth. Seniors were tasked with accepting and learning to live with loss. What the…? To my mid-thirties self, this was the worst. I couldn’t imagine what that would even feel like.

Now...

There are so many misconceptions about grief, particularly when it comes to losing a child. These misunderstandings don’t just perpetuate unhelpful narratives—they can also make healing so much more complicated for bereaved parents.

I’ll never forget the first time my husband, Jeff, and I sought out therapy after Colten’s accident. It had been just four weeks since we ...

For decades, many people have been introduced to grief through the concept of the “Five Stages of Grief”—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages have become so deeply embedded in our culture that many grieving people believe they are supposed to experience loss in this order and eventually arrive at a final destination called acceptance. The proble...

Each person’s experience and expression of grief is as unique as their relationship with the person who died. Within families and closely connected communities, this can sometimes present challenges when others’ grief experiences are different from ours. Add to this, shared, societal “myths” about the duration and intensity of grief, and many can feel isolated and lack a sens...