Coping with Family Grief

The BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire has an article about How have you coped with the loss of a loved one? in which people tell their emotional journey’s. Oh reading about others losses is so heart wrenching. One thing that seems to unite us all is the value of human love, human empathy from our friends…

“It was the same with our friends and relatives. One friend flew from Australia upon hearing of Ed’s death, another lent us her cleaning lady. Many more cooked meals, did our shopping and invited us into their homes. Some spoke and wrote with extraordinary eloquence, some could barely find a word.

However they expressed themselves, all gave of themselves – and all gave us strength.”

That last phrase…”They expressed themselves…” really hit me. How often do we hold our emotions back in everyday life? How often do we prevent the emotions to come out, in fear of being seen as weak? When in reality showing our emotions help others, showing our emotions illustrates our ‘humanness’

I don’t believe we should ever let our emotions control us, however I do believe we   need a channel for the feelings so that we control them. Modern life is so hectic and often we as friends just don’t take enough time to be with each other….a huge learning for me in grief is take that time now, as you may never get a second chance…. 

[photo from iStockphoto]