Communal Grief I live in a small, close-knit community in Southwestern Illinois where most people know each other.  Generations have lived here and work to make new folks welcome.  When a member of our town dies, we collectively grieve.  You can almost hear the town sigh, “We will miss you.” Grief professionals refer to this […]

Is it better to rip off a bandage in one fast jerk, or is it more advisable to ease it off gradually?  Such a dilemma!   I usually favor getting the pain over with quickly, so I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and rip it off as fast as I can.  There!  Done!  […]

Robin Roberts is one of my favorite news anchors.  She not only wears yellow a lot of the time, (and so do I) she also has an optimistic view most of the time.  Not that she’s not a serious journalist, she is.  And, she has the ability to find the good in a person she […]

  I never knew what grief was until I experienced it first-hand.  My partner of almost 36 years was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma and died three weeks later on March 1, 2020.  Shortly after her death, I couldn’t get a grip and knew I wasn’t coping, so I sought out help at Heartlinks Grief Center.  […]

  A Bible Study?  Based on Heartbroken?  When Jodi from Trinity Lutheran Church in Nashville, Illinois contacted me about writing a bible study series titled “God Care About Addiction” using Heartbroken – Grief and Hope Inside the Opioid Crisis as an element for the series, I was flabbergasted. I had written the book (along with […]

This week I was asked about writing a blog.  It should be an easy gig for me; however, my best writings have been on the fly without much thinking.  So, I picked up a pizza and a 6 pack and decided to give it the old college try.   The first topic was finding hope. […]

Sunsets are one of life’s best gifts.  Sunsets red on the ocean, peaking around mountains or brilliant on the plains, I love them all. The sunsets from my home in rural Okawville are awesome.   I’ll bet you have seen wonderous ones, too. This sunset is from my office window. For me, sunset is the most […]

Every day an “Insight of the Day” arrives in my email inbox.  Some days the message is inspirational.  Other days the words make me pause and contemplate my life and what’s important.  The article below did just that.  It made me really think about what matters this Christmas. I share it with you in the […]

November 18th, National Children’s Grief Awareness Day is a special day for me.  One reason it is a special day is that it’s the day I launched my first book, We Lost Her.  We Lost Her told the story of 7 children that lost their mom.  My mom, my family’s intimate story.  In it, I […]

  October 15th is a special day.  It is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.  In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed into law that this day we would remember all those little ones lost.  Lost to miscarriage, stillbirth, or who died in their first year of life.  Lost to their parents who were ready for […]