Grief | Grieving | Death of a Child

HEALING THE GRIEVING HEART
Coming to Terms with Loss
Hosts:  Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Heidi Horsley
With guest:  Donna Schuurman
October 26, 2006
G: Hello, I’m Dr. Gloria Horsley, with my co-host,
H; Dr. Heidi Horsley. 
G: Each week, we welcome you to Healing the Grieving Heart, a show of hope and renewal for those who have suffered the loss of a child, a sibling or a grandchild or just friends, and as always the message is others have been there before you and made it and you do not walk alone.  If you’re listening to our Thursday live Internet show, please join Heidi and me on our show by calling our toll-free number, 1-866-472-5792, with questions or comments regarding the losses in your life.  These shows are archived on our website, www.healingthegrievingheart.org and www.thecompassionatefriends.org website.  They can also be downloaded through Itunes and we are on selected radio stations.  You can go to our website, www.healingthegrievingheart.org to find out what those stations are.  We also welcome you to our website to see our quote of the week and if you also click on Scott’s site, you can leave a candle for your child.  We love to get those candles, don’t we, Heidi?
H: Yes, it’s wonderful.  Thank you.
G: And have your children’s names on there.  We also have a site that you can hit which is our blog and we’re coming up with a new blog called the grief blog that will be a lot easier to use we’re hoping and that will be in the next two or three days so you can go to the site and we’re hoping that you’ll be able to log in, tell your stories, ask us questions, and we’ll have, basically, wouldn’t you say, Heidi, a virtual community? Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to our new interactive blog! This is our “temporary home” — we’ll be changing the design, adding new features, including tons of audio, podcasts, articles, maybe some video and of course your stories, questions and comments.

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is one of life’s most difficult challenges. The Grief Blog’s goal is to enhance the work our community is already doing and provide an open forum with the singular goal of helping one another.

If you haven’t already, please take advantage of the resources provided by our the great people at http://www.thecompassionatefriends.org , visit our website http://www.healingthegrievingheart.org check out some of the book titles in our new bookstore by guests on our weekly radio show, and if you have time, tune in today at 9 AM Pacific Standard Time/12 Noon Eastern Standard Time to our talk radio show and call in toll-free at 1-866-472-5792.

Our Guests today will be Dr. Donna Schuurman, National Director of The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, where she has served in various roles since 1986.

Dr. Schuurman has written and trained internationally on children’s bereavement issues, and is the author of Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent.

Dr. Schuurman served as President of the Board of Directors for the Association for Death Education & Counseling, and in 2003 received their Annual Service Award. She is a member of the International Work Group on Death and Dying, and serves as a Director of the boards of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention NW, and The Naitonal Alliance for Grieving Children. She is the bereaved sibling of Lynne.

Call in TOLL FREE 1-866-472-5792 and be part of the healing.

As for The Grief Blog, please click on the comments link just below this post and let us know what you think about our start, and what you’d like to have us make available here in the future.

Dr. Gloria & Dr. Heidi

OCTOBER 19, 2006 – PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: SIBLING DEATH FROM A LONG TERM ADDICTION:  ROD COLVIN who lost his brother, Randy, age 35, to a drug addiction in 1988. Randy’s death inspired Rod, a former journalist, to write Prescription Drug Addiction—The Hidden Epidemic.  Rod currently is the publisher of Addicus Books out of Omaha, Nebraska. From 2003 to 2005, Rod served on an advisory panel to The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), Columbia University, which produced “Under the Counter: The Diversion and Abuse of Prescription Drugs in the U.S.,” a landmark study on prescription drug abuse in the U. S. Tune in as Gloria and Heidi talk with Rod about what you can do when a loved one is deep into drug addiction and how to cope.  www.presriptiondrugaddiction.com www.addicusbooks.com Read the rest of this entry »

HEALING THE GRIEVING HEART
Prescription Drugs: Sibling Death From A Long-Term Addiction
Hosts:  Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Heidi Horsley
With guest:  Rod Colvin
October 19, 2006
G: Hello, I’m Dr. Gloria Horsley, with my co-host,
H; Dr. Heidi Horsley. 
G: Each week, we welcome you to Healing the Grieving Heart, a show of hope and renewal for those who have suffered the loss of a child or a sibling or a grandchild and the message is always others have been there and made it and you can too.  You do not walk alone.  If you’re listening to our Thursday live Internet show, please join Heidi and me on the show by calling our toll-free number, 1-866-472-5792, with questions or comments regarding the losses in your life.  These shows are archived on our website, www.healingthegrievingheart.org and www.thecompassionatefriends.org website.  They can also be downloaded through Itunes and we are on selected radio stations.  You can go on our website to find those stations.  We also have a blog now and we have a quote of the week so you’re definitely going to want to visit our website, www.healingthegrievingheart.org.  Good morning, Heidi.
H: Good morning, mom.
G: Last night you had an interesting event and I thought you might want to talk to our audience about it.
H: Okay.  I conducted a workshop at the Center For Women’s Reproductive Care at Columbia University, and basically what I spoke on is mourning pregnancy loss and early infant death.  It was interesting to be there because there were a lot of newly bereaved parents in the audience who had just recently either had a pregnancy loss or had a baby that had lived – one woman had a baby live 11 days and it had died so it was very emotional.  I myself have had two miscarriages so I could identify from a personal perspective on what they’re going through.
G: And infertility issues that they had, too, right?
H: Absolutely.  I went through three years of infertility and it’s a long journey and we all desperately want to get pregnant.  We all desperately want children.  It’s a very emotional journey.  I think what the women lost in the audience and what their spouses lost – but you don’t just lose a pregnancy when you miscarry or have a pregnancy loss or an ectopic pregnancy, you lose a dream.  You lose the dream of your future as parents and what would your life look like with these children.  Read the rest of this entry »

HEALING THE GRIEVING HEART
Death of an Adult Child
Hosts:  Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Heidi Horsley
With guest:  Natalie Smith-Blakeslee
October 12, 2006
G: Hello, I’m Dr. Gloria Horsley.  Welcome to Healing the Grieving Heart.  If you’re listening today to Thursday, our live Internet show, please join Heidi and me on the show by calling our toll-free number 1-866-472-5792 with questions or comments regarding the losses in your life.  This show is a show of hope and renewal for those who have suffered the loss of a child or a sibling or a grandchild and always our message is others have been there and made it before you and you can make it too.  You do not walk alone.  These shows are archived on our website, www.healingthegrievingheart.org and on the www.thecompassionatefriends.org websites.  They also can be downloaded through Itunes and we are on selected radio stations.  You can go to our website, www.healingthegrievingheart.org, to look up what stations we’re on.  Well, Heidi, good morning. 
H: Good morning, mom.
G: It’s good to talk to you this morning.  Before we introduce our guest, I think you want to talk about some events that went on in New York yesterday and then we have some email.
H: I do.  As most of the listeners know, I live here in midtown Manhattan and yesterday, unfortunately, Cory Lidle, who is a New York Yankees pitcher, accidentally crashed into a high-rise building and he was killed.  I just wanted to say that my heart goes out to his family and to his siblings.  Last night, on “Larry King Live,” his twin brother was on and he was amazing.  And I think right now he’s being strong for his parents, which is what we do as siblings.  We step up and we’re strong for our parents initially after the death of our sibling and, in this case, a twin brother.  It’s heartbreaking.
G: Yeah, quite a thing, and for somebody to be on, I’m sure he’s in shock, to be able to come on the next day is pretty incredible.  So, I wanted to go over an email with you and also some of the answers to these emails are on the blog.  You can go to our website and look at our new blog.  And we’re just getting used to this and we’re hoping to get a little more user-friendly blog so that you can all blog in and comment to each other and we have great hopes and expectations for this.  So we got an email, Heidi, from a woman, Kim, who said that her son was killed 2.5 years ago and that he took his own life while coming off of anti-depressants.  And she says the problem is, and she wanted to comment on it, is that she wonders if it’s normal.  Trevor’s friend is getting married and she feels like she’s totally regressing and getting very upset and she thought she was living alone with her grief.  Do you have a thought on that for Kim? Read the rest of this entry »

OCTOBER 12, 2006 - DEATH OF AN ADULT CHILD:  NATALIE SMITH-BLAKESLEE.  For more than ten years Natalie Smith-Blakeslee has connected parents with the children they have lost with her “Messages from the Light” She thought she understood what it was like for a parent to lose a child. She had no clue until her 27 year old daughter, Carrie, passed from leukemia on October 2, 2005. Just twelve short months after her daughter passing, she is driven to help other bereaved parents who endure the same loss through a website she made in memory of Carrie called “Healing Hearts Haven.”  http://www.healingheartshaven.com/ <http://www.healingheartshaven.com/>  Read the rest of this entry »

OCTOBER 26, 2006 – COMING TO TERMS WITH LOSS:  DONNA SCHUURMAN, National Director of The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, where she has served in various roles since 1986.  She has written and trained internationally on children’s bereavement issues, and is the author of Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent.  Dr. Schuurman served as President of the Board of Directors for the Association for Death Education & Counseling, and in 2003 received their Annual Service Award.  She is a member of the International Work Group on Death and Dying, and serves as a Director on the boards of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention NW, and The National Alliance for Grieving Children.  She is the bereaved sibling of Lynne.  http://www.dougy.org/ Read the rest of this entry »

Elaine E. Stillwell, M.A., M.S., is a wife, mother, educator, author and lecturer.  In 1986 following the deaths of her two oldest children, 21 year old Denis and 19 year old Peggy, Elaine and her husband, Joe, founded The Compassionate Friends of Rockville Centre (NY) where they continue as Chapter Leaders today.  Elaine has shared her gifts of caring and humor at workshops, seminars, and on radio and television.  She also writes magazine articles, pamphlets, books and has a column in Grief Digest.  Since 1998 she has been Bereavement Coordinator for 134 parishes in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The Death of a Child is her latest book.  http://www.childrenofdome.com/Elaine.html and http://www.holyroodcemetery.org/bereavement.htm

Elaine Stillwell:  Well, you know what was interesting when the publisher asked me to write it, he wanted the story of everybody.  He wanted me to write “we,” not just my life story, and I think that was the golden part of the book that it shared so many stories.  And the way people survived and the things that they did because we’re always looking for things that will help us and we never think of all the many ways that there are and we all grieve differently and we learn from each other. Read the rest of this entry »