I recently enrolled in the Haden Institute’s Dream Group Leader Training Program. I have been collecting and working with my dreams for the past 15 years. I wanted to recommend a book for those of you who looking for spiritual help with working through your emotions after a loss. (more…)

If you are looking for a way to remember your deceased Dad this father’s day, consider making an online memorial Web site in his name. It can provide comfort as a place to come back to routinely to post new thoughts or photos of your Dad to celebrate his life and make him an active part of your life even after he’s left this earth. 

A great place to start building your memorial site is Memory-of.com. On the site you can upload video and audio files, create a family tree and provide an area for others to post comments. The hosting is free for two weeks then hosting costs a low monthly or yearly fee.

Full description of Memory-Of is on page 168 of Mom Minus Dad.

I wish I had known about AARP’s grief and loss website when my father first died. It has a lot of helpful checklists and information about grief. The topics names their articles cover include Final Details, Urgent Details, Steps to Take, Necessary Papers, and Claiming Benefits. You don’t have to be an AARP member to access the information.

Prepared food can be a thoughtful and useful gift for a griever from friends or family, especially during the first few months after the loss of a spouse or loved one.  Here are a few options to choose from: Big City Chefs: personal chefs in major cities for hire; Diamond Organics: fresh organic foods from California with overnight delivery; Dinewise: gourmet frozen meals with special meals for seniors and diabetics; Gourmet Grocery online:  gift baskets and prepared meals and soups or Harry and David for gourmet gift baskets; and Home Bistro: meals for special diets. Your friends and family will appreciate having healthy foods around when they have low energy to get foods themselves after the loss of a loved one.

I recently learned about a program offered by many companies -such as Nike and Intel- and individuals for caregivers called Powerful Tools for Caregivers. Offered by non-profit Legacy Caregiver Services, Powerful Tools for Caregivers is a six week program for family and friends of older adults who have Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or other long-term debilitating diseases.

Class topics include: “Taking Care of You”, “Identifying and Reducing Personal Stress”, “Communicating Feelings, Needs and Concerns”, “Communicating in Challenging Situations”, “Learning from Our Emotions”, and “Mastering Caregiving Decisions”.

For more information about local classes offered email caregiver@lhs.org. Or go to the Web site.

Today’s topic at my weekly Griefshare group was “The Uniqueness of Grief art I.”  The main theme of the class evolved around understanding that everyone grieves differently- even in the same family- and that’s ok.

The video this week talked about common issues for grieving parents, effects on marriage and grief as well as how to help grieving children. I did notice the video is geared more toward the typical American family (2 kids) and didn’t specifically address the needs of adult children at all which is unfortunate.

The video talked about how an antipated death affects your grief because you do a lot of grieving ahead of the actual death so your grief after the death may not be as long but doesn’t lessen the grief you experience. I would agree with this as I believe my grieving started at diagnosis for my father. (more…)