By GriefWorks Director Larry M. Barber, LPC-S, CT
This month of May I have the privilege of addressing a class at the Pepperdine Lectureship. The topic will be “Love Never Dies: Embracing Grief with Hope and Promise” the name of my published grief survival guide. In attendance for my class will be my 30-year-old son Christian, my 28-year-old daughter Sarah and my brother Jason. I think it will prove to be a meaningful and emotional anniversary of my family’s personal losses of my wife and daughter nineteen years ago.
Anniversary dates in grief are significant for many reasons. They mark the passage of time in the journey of grief, but these anniversary dates can also mark progress and change in the grief experienced and change in the mourner. Anniversary dates, birthdays, holidays and other special days in grief bring with them each time they are experienced a sense of dread, sadness, and all the emotions that come with the harsh, piercing reminders that your loved one is not physically present with you.
The month of May each year for me contains an overwhelming list of reminders that my beautiful wife Cindy and my adorable daughter Katie are not and cannot be physically with me. May 1 is Katie’s birthday. May 9 is Cindy’s birthday. Then there is Mother’s Day each year reminding me that my two surviving children are still missing their mother. But the count of difficult days for me doesn’t stop with just those days. May 15 is the day of the accident that took Katie’s and Cindy’s lives. May 15 is also the date of Katie’s death since she died instantly in the crash. Two days later May 17 my wife Cindy died in surgery. May 19 marks the annual anniversary of the double funeral for my wife Cindy and my daughter Katie. Needless to say, the month of May is difficult for me and my children. I would be happy if May could be removed from the yearly calendar permanently.
As time goes by these anniversary dates in May still carry with them emotional pain and spiritual struggle that simply come from missing valuable people. My grief is different now, but it is still painful and it is still a struggle although it changes with the passage of time. I never expect my grief to become completely easy.
I do not know how my endurance of the anniversary month of May is helping me to heal, but I just have to trust that it is healthy and healing. I never want to quit loving Cindy and Katie. Therefore, I will never quit expressing that love as grief as long as I am not in their physical presence.
Time in grief is a strange thing. For me the 19 years since the deaths of my daughter Katie and my wife Cindy can sometimes seem like forever. But many times when memories hit me and grief outbursts take place, it seems like the losses just happened yesterday. What keep me going on are my faith and my hope that we will be reunited. I have a feeling that when the reunion of my family takes place that time, the time spent in grief, and that the exhausting experience of grief itself will not matter anymore.
What I wish for you as a fellow mourner is that you can find hope and promise that will sustain you for the full grief journey especially during difficult days. Grief is never easy, but with the right support, coping skills and good information, it can become easier. I want you to find hope that your grief journey will not always be like it is right now-overwhelming and all-consuming. I also want you to experience that you do have the promise of being supplied with all the resources-including people, information, support and comfort-that you will need to successfully get through grief.
For help for grieving children in GriefWorks, the free grief support service for ages 5-18 contact Janet Johnston at 972-960-9981 or jjohnston@christian-works.org .
For grief counseling appointments contact Laurie Gaddy at 972-960-9981 or lgaddy@christian-works.org.
To purchase a copy of Love Never Dies: Embracing Grief with Hope and Promise go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
