Category Archives: Living and grieving

A new way to mark the anniversary of our daughter’s death

Another year has rolled around since Abi was last here… on 6th February we were forced to remember the day she collapsed. On 10th February, we thought of the moment we sat by her bedside as the doctor turned off her life support and said goodbye. But mostly, we were reminded of the time when she was ‘ripped’...

Dealing with my son’s sudden illness while grieving my daughter’s sudden death

Experiencing one of my children falling suddenly ill has revealed much about how grief has impacted me, as a mother who is grieving the sudden death of another of my children. Last weekend, my son scared us. The anxiety and fear flooded back in and we fought with everything we had to hold it together. Losing Abi was the worst thing imaginable...

A dog’s sense

I read last night this fascinating look at dogs’ way of communicating with us. I saw many similarities with our loopy Lab, Darcy, who is now 10 years old. Here’s a picture of him taken last week on a walk… I was also reminded of the post below which I wrote not long after Abi...

I refuse to give up on Christmas even though I’m grieving

When I’ve looked at the search terms people use to find my blog, my heart aches. These are just the Christmas-related search terms for my blog this week: ‘Coping with the loss of a child, on what should be their first Christmas’ ‘Christmas loss of a child’ ‘Christmas cards appropriate to send after losing a...

Health anxiety (hypochondria) after the death of a loved one

As someone who now openly admits to suffering with health anxiety, since the death of my 12-year-old daughter and three pregnancy losses, I tend to avoid any kind of health-related TV programme. In fact, I wrote this blog post about why TV alienates the grieving as it contains so much death, blood, gore and trauma....

The physical pains of grief

It’s been a while since I posted about my reluctant but important decision to take antidepressant (or rather anti-anxiety) medication. I have taken a break from writing for a while, to let life settle and see what comes of this new course of treatment. While at first the medicine seemed to exacerbate my symptoms, they...

What Disney’s Inside Out taught me about grief and loss

I recently took my daughter, age 12, to watch Inside Out. It was a rare day that we had alone and I felt it would be a poignant film to see together. Having researched the film (which I have to do with anything I expose my children to), I was impressed by the reviews which...

A grieving mother’s bucket list – catching frogs and drinking good coffee!

I recently bumped into an old friend, someone I’d not seen in around 20 years. We had a nice chat about the main aspects of what we’ve done with our lives, as you do, and we got onto the subject of fitness. My friend revealed she was entered into a marathon and was working out...

The dark side of grief – craving escape from the mental and physical pain of loss

I recently went for my first month check-up at the doctors, to see how I’ve settled taking the antidepressants. For anyone who has not taken antidepressants before, or who hasn’t experienced anxiety – and especially for those grieving mummas out there who are finding that anxiety and depression are adding to their grief, I wanted...

When celebrities die – Why are we still so ‘shocked’ by death?

Yesterday, the news reported that Cilla Black – one of the UK’s ‘national treasures’ of entertainment, had died. The Media was ‘shocked and saddened’ by the news. Then social media saw a flurry of posts as people shared their own ‘shock’ at her death. Cilla? Dead? That cannot be? Even Bruce Forsyth said he was...

Chasing Dragonflies

Gentle support for grieving families – trusted by schools, hospitals and counsellors

Category Archives: Living and grieving

A new way to mark the anniversary of our daughter’s death

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Dealing with my son’s sudden illness while grieving my daughter’s sudden death

Like this:

A dog’s sense

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I refuse to give up on Christmas even though I’m grieving

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Health anxiety (hypochondria) after the death of a loved one

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The physical pains of grief

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What Disney’s Inside Out taught me about grief and loss

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A grieving mother’s bucket list – catching frogs and drinking good coffee!

Like this:

The dark side of grief – craving escape from the mental and physical pain of loss

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When celebrities die – Why are we still so ‘shocked’ by death?

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