Creating conversations about loss

Remembrance

BY VALERIE STAPLETONAUGUST 27, 2023 6:00 AM People can leave you when you’re not ready. Sometimes they leave with no remnants of connection left behind. When one of my closest friends took his own life, I turned to art to stay sane. On Aug. 25, 2019, I got the call […]

Art helped find a connection after catastrophe

August 27, 2023 in Depression / Grief / Remembrance / Suffering by LTLWYS Admin

BY MIKE BERRENAJUNE 25, 2023 7:00 AM Many men describe their grief experiences as feeling devoid of emotion and lacking tears. My father, Lou, was not like other men. He shared his loss and his grief openly, showing tears and savoring memories of when he lost my mother and my […]

Dad provided model of grief and grieving that helped through ...

June 26, 2023 in Death and Dying / Grief / Hope / Remembrance by LTLWYS Admin

BY KEN BAXTERAPRIL 23, 2023 6:00 AM Hanna Arendt, one of my favorite philosophers, said, “We will lose everything, including our lives.” I would add everything and everyone, and in no particular order. In my younger days, I helped people navigate an ever-changing, and increasingly dangerous world. Teaching self-defense to […]

The ‘what-ifs’ are real, but we must live without fear

April 24, 2023 in Belonging / Death and Dying / Depression / Grief / Hope / Remembrance / Storytelling by LTLWYS Admin

BY AL VICERE MARCH 26, 2023 7:00 AM It’s March 30, 1981. My wife Nancy had gone into labor hours earlier that morning with our first child, our daughter Jana. Things progressed slowly. That was the start of a pattern. Jana always was late. The slow pace continued, so I […]

Ghostbusting and the power of living forth

April 24, 2023 in Death and Dying / Depression / Grief / Hope / Remembrance / Storytelling by LTLWYS Admin

BY MADDY ARTHUR SEPTEMBER 25, 2022 6:00 AM Sometimes, when people ask me where my dad lives, I say “Western Massachusetts!” In reality, he lives (read, exists) in a jar on my desk. The day my sister brought me his ashes was the first time we had lived together since […]

Grief you can’t escape — and don’t want to

October 23, 2022 in Grief / Hope / Remembrance by LTLWYS Admin

BY ALICIA ANDERSON JULY 31, 2022 6:00 AM The dress we ordered for my mom to wear to my daughter’s wedding in May 2020 still hangs in the spare bedroom at my house. It is a dusty blue that brought out the lovely blue of her eyes. The only other […]

Grama’s unworn dress stirs up memories, reflection

August 22, 2022 in Death and Dying / Grief / Remembrance / Storytelling by LTLWYS Admin

BY KIMBERLY MCGINNIS JUNE 26, 2022 6:00 AM It has been said that grief is love. If so, I have been loving and grieving for a long time — eight years of love, grief and loss. My mother died on Jan. 2 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She […]

Loving and grieving through a mother’s journey with Alzheimer’s disease

August 22, 2022 in Death and Dying / Grief / Remembrance / Transitions by LTLWYS Admin

BY JANE P. BUTLER FEBRUARY 27, 2022 6:00 AM My mind is the fog on a rainy day protecting me from knowing the extent of the grief yet to come. I am in a trance with a list to finish. Checking off each item keeps sadness hidden. When all is […]

Nature’s healing promise

February 28, 2022 in Death and Dying / Grief / Hope / Remembrance by LTLWYS Admin

BY ELIZABETH AND CHRISTIAN BRADYJANUARY 16, 2022 6:00 AM My back was sore as I scrambled off the floor and the pile of wrapped presents to slide onto the couch and pick up my glass of port. I stretched and observed to Elizabeth that it has been a really challenging […]

9 years after Mack Brady’s death, grief changes, celebration of ...

January 18, 2022 in Belonging / Death and Dying / Grief / Hope / Remembrance by LTLWYS Admin

BY MARY CURRAN DECEMBER 26, 2021 5:00 AM Here we are celebrating our second holiday season in the midst of a pandemic and all I can think about is what life was like before we worried about masking, vaccines and hand sanitizer. Travel back in time to Christmas 2019. Ask […]

This holiday season, think of time like a river

January 12, 2022 in Grief / Remembrance by LTLWYS Admin