The Unsaid Goodbye

We were enjoying morning coffee on the veranda when the phone rang, tautening the string in me that already knew who it would be. ‘Oh Clare’ Mum began gently, ‘I’m afraid it’s not great news.’ Over the last few weeks my stepfather had been drifting on the ebbing tides of his life, a listing vessel…

Shock and Sadness

Today I want to talk about grief. Perhaps it is because I am growing older, but death seems to be coming closer. I was very fortunate to have all four of my grandparents until my mid-thirties. I now have two grandparents surviving, but they are both old and ill. My aunts, uncles and cousins still…

Bereavement and Loss – Part 3 of 7

In this section I will look at how the work of Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross changed how we look at the grieving process. Dr Kübler-Ross, who pioneered methods in the support and counselling of personal trauma, grief and grieving, proposed a model of the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance).  This is actually…