DYING: A Book of Comfort
Companion website about dying, bereavement, loss, grief — and aging with spirit
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Bereavement, grief, and recovery• Links to help on bereavement, grief and recovery • Selections from DYING about Grief and Recovery Through a Glass Darkly, Miriam Greenspan On Moving from Grief to Gratitude (Barbara Platek, The Sun)
Selections from DYING about Grief and Recovery There are many, many more in the book, of course. "For two years . . . I was just as crazy as you can be and still be at large. I didn't have any really normal minutes during those two years. It wasn't just grief. It was total confusion. I was nutty, and that's the truth. How did I come out of it? I don't know, because I didn't know when I was in it that I was in it." ~ Helen Hayes, the actress, on the death of her husband Charles MacArthur And time remembered is grief forgotten, And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, And in green underwood and cover Blossom by blossom the spring begins. ~ Algernon Charles Swinburne You can't prevent birds of sorrow fling over your head--but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair. ~ Chinese proverb I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing Eyes-- I wonder if it weighs like Mine-- Or has an easier size. ~ Emily Dickinson Grief can be the garden of compassion. ~ Jelaluddin Rumi |
Disenfranchised grief is "the grief that persons experience when they incur a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged, publicly mourned, or socially supported.” ~ Kenneth Doka “McNees has provided a remarkable anthology of insights, comforting words, stories, reassurance, and guidance for the journey of dying and grieving. Fourteen chapters delve artfully and compassionately into a full range of dying, death, and bereavement topics. An index by author ‘Names’ and another by ‘Titles and Selected First Lines’ make it possible to return and savor the many rich offerings she has gathered.” ~ Rev. Paul A. Metzler, The Center for Living with Loss, in newsletter, Association for Death Education and Counseling “I've been devouring the book, which is strangely comforting in a way I can't put my finger on. I gave it to my mother and brother, too, to help them come to terms with my father's death, which seemed sudden even though he was chronically ill. The book's greatest gift for us was that it contained the perfect poem for my mother to read at the graveside for my father's unveiling. It was a real act of courage for her to read it in public, without breaking down, and because the words were so beautiful and so apt, the poem itself helped start her on the path to healing.” ~ Robin Marantz Henig, author of How a Woman Ages and Pandora's Baby  “Seldom have I read a book that exudes such comfort, such an embrace of genuine insight, care and support....The book’s gift, and it is a rich treasure for the reader, is that it embraces who we are.... The book can be read cover to cover, or just pick out a page. Something will leap off the page, a story, a quote, a reading, narrative couplings of diverse themes colorfully worded by the author/ ~ Rev. Richard B. Gilbert, director, World Pastoral Care Center, in Resources Hotline |
