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Category: grief

An Anniversary Book Excerpt

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I may have mentioned that I got the rights back to my book, Heart Warriors, A Family Faces Congenital Heart Disease. I am almost done with rewriting it to include my journey with post traumatic stress disorder, but that journey is still unfolding. Tonight is an anniversary – the anniversary of my child’s first surgical scar. It’s on his wrist. It’s still there. I sometimes see it at the dinner table. Unlike the scars on his chest or groin, which I never see anymore now that he’s seventeen, the ones… Read more An Anniversary Book Excerpt →

Good-bye Good Friend

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Today my friend Jan died.  She was forty-six years old and celebrated a birthday just a couple of weeks ago.  Now, she’s gone. Even before I had a child with severe CHD, I thought death was pervasive in my life, from my dad and friend Mary, to coworkers and former classmates.  I felt I knew more than my quota of loss. Since becoming a heart mom it’s different.  There was a time when every death shook me and reminded me that this family could have been our family. Then my… Read more Good-bye Good Friend →

My Friend Pam

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In the past I’ve written tributes to lost friends George, Mary, and Steve.  Today I want to share the tribute I wrote for my friend Pam.  She was killed last month in a head-on collision.  Pam’s daughters agreed that we should share this, and one of her daughters read the words at Pam’s funeral. Pam’s church was so full I stood at the back and people were seated in the entryway outside of the sanctuary to say goodbye to this remarkable woman.  As the terrible shock is wearing off, the… Read more My Friend Pam →