Imagine a little girl that you know that is approximately five years old. Think of the innocence of that little girl. Are you able to picture her? When I was approximately the age of that little girl, then I was sexually abused by a teenage boy in our neighborhood. I went from a little girl…
For the girls and I, our Christmas and New Year celebration begins when Kylee comes home for semester break from her university. Kylee has completed the first semester of her junior year in college and continues to work hard to meet her goals. The first weekend that Kylee was home then we did our annual…
As we are in the midst of our busy holiday season, I have been thinking a lot about the holidays and special days and how these times are for those who are grieving and in pain. Often during the holidays, this is a time in our culture where others recognize that this is a difficult…
When the girls and I were at Gooseberry Falls in Northern Minnesota this past June, we were amazed at all of the trees along the hiking trails that had their roots exposed. These tree roots can be described as gnarled and laid bare. It was truly amazing to walk along the hiking path and to…
October started in such a horrific way for our country… either we went to sleep on Sunday night October 1st hearing of the horrendous shootings in Las Vegas or we woke up Monday morning to the news. When you think back to when you heard the news of what was happening then what were your…
We had the wonderful opportunity of celebrating Kylee’s 21st birthday this weekend on Saturday. My wonderful parents were here from North Dakota to celebrate with Kylee, MiKayla, and I, and we had a great time celebrating Kylee!! Turning 21 is a milestone that lots of young adults look forward to, and Kylee has definitely been…
Loneliness is a significant part of the grief journey. No matter what your relationship is to the person who has died then missing them and feeling the loss of their presence is one of the parts of grief that often surfaces throughout the grief journey. Webster’s dictionary defines lonely as “being without company or cut off from…
Recently, I was talking to one of my friends who had a daughter that had been killed in a car accident. His daughter was similar in age to my son PK who was killed at the age of 18. He was struggling with how to process his grief. He said, “I put all of her pictures away……
So often, those of us who are on this grief journey or who have experienced trauma in our lives experience triggers along the way. A trigger can take us right back to the trauma that we have experienced whether it is a flashback or reliving the memory. My triggers have included a wide variety of…
Last night, my two beautiful girls and I had a scary experience. Kylee was driving back into our community from college and was driving by Walmart. She was in the right lane, and a truck was in the left lane. The truck did not signal or see Kylee and turned right into her car hitting…