“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”. Anais Nin When something of such magnitude happens, it becomes a matter of extremes. At some point, it is either a matter of curling up and dying yourself or allowing your heart to fill with love and deciding to live every moment with gratitude. For us, there was nothing in between. The first wasn’t an option because we…
The death of a child adds a layer of complexity to many aspects of grieving. A parent’s instinct to protect. Pride. And above all the desire to surround your child with love. My unspoken was…
I have often asked myself why I like the mist. Days when time seems to stand still and the edges of the world soften. On days like these, I am happy with the state…
“Those are tears in my back,” I thought. “The tissues and muscles are knotted up with all my sadness.” Many people say that labour is the most intensely physical experience there is. For me, the physical…
You know that place between sleep and awake, that place where you still remember dreaming.. That’s where I’ll be waiting. Parkes (1969) who has studied grief in humans and its equivalent in animals has…
55 hours. I wanted to stretch those moments out until they bent and snapped. Even in the finality of death, and all that came afterwards, I wanted to linger in every final stage. In…
Sometimes the love and gratitude that I feel for my husband will startle me when I am in the middle of doing the most mundane of things. I could be stacking plates and suddenly I will…
“Sometimes our own stories are the hardest ones to tell. But if they are not told, they become something else. Forgotten.” Words have always held a fascination for me, the rhythm, the rise and fall,…
Grief is a bit like stepping from island to island. It comes in waves and we try to hold on with love until we get to the next island, to the next moment of…
“Never replacing. Replacement is not in your vocabulary. You are only loving more. More and more.” In the hush of our hospital room, there were so many promises that drifted down to Oliver’s ears in whispers. In…
“The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Introducing our baby girl, 6lb of pure love, our Valentine’s baby. She is named after her maternal great aunt, Lily Reimann, who…