Month: August 2014


Aug
2014

For Mothers of Children Who Have Struggled with Mental Illness and Drug Addiction

categories: Addiction, Connections, Feelings, Mental Illness
debra reagan

Debra Reagan

Originally posted on Debra’s memorial site: www.clint-reagan.memory-of.com

Dearest Mothers,

In the beginning, it mattered to me the hows and whys of Clint’s death. My heart and my head argued. My heart keep saying, “He can’t be gone, we still have so much love to give him.” In a strange unfair twist, this love was even greater because it was not hindered with all the stress and chaos involved with dealing with someone struggling with mental illness and drug addiction. This wasn’t fair. I became angry. I had done everything I thought was right. I had been a stay at home mom up until middle school. We were an intact family. Clint had experienced some privileges in his life. We were there for him every step of the way. We tried to handle what we knew and what we understood.

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Aug
2014

Three

categories: Connections
amparo

Amparo Atencio

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Three. The Triad—heaven-human-earth; past-present-future—the number three is significant as a prime number in mathematics, the spatial dimensions of science, the Holy Trinity of Christianity. For me, the number three represents the third day in October of my son’s birth and the third anniversary of his death. And it also became a gift.

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Aug
2014

Crossroads in Grief: To Hide or Persevere

categories: Feelings
teenage boy at restaurant with mom

Debra Reagan

This article was originally published on Open to Hope, a website whose mission is to help those who have suffered a loss to cope with their pain and invest in the future.

To most folks, Aug. 6, 2005, was an ordinary day, but for me it became the worst day in my life.  I woke up that morning expecting to celebrate my birthday; instead, I learned of my youngest son’s death.  Despite the fact that I had many loving family members and friends, I found myself feeling isolated and numb.  It took so much of my energy just to make it through each day that I had nothing left for anything else. (more…)


Aug
2014

Baby, Can You See Me?

categories: Nature
mom and son in front of mountains

Amparo Atencio

This article was originally published in “We Need Not Walk Alone,” the national magazine of The Compassionate Friends.

The culmination of all the training runs…the throng of like-minded people…the crack of the starting pistol…ah, race day jitters! Nothing could motivate me more than the start of a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, or triathlon back in the day. That was then. Back then, I never looked up. I never noticed the blueness of the sky. I never noticed the vastness of the stars. I never paid attention to the sun rise. I never saw the craters of the moon. That was then. (more…)