I originally wrote this post in October 2019. I’m posting it now because during the Lockdown there’s no live sport and on television it’s just match replays. This post is a tribute to everyone who is just about surviving in the absence. It will return. Maybe this year’s football season will be completed! Yesterday IContinue reading “37. Coronavirus means no live sport”
Category Archives: Grieving
35. A crushed engagement ring
Ten days ago, I noticed my engagement ring had become misshapen on the palm-side. It must have been crushed at some point in the previous week. I’ve worn it 24/7 since Robert has died. It is a constant reminder of his precious gift when I agreed to marry him. It was a sign of hisContinue reading “35. A crushed engagement ring”
34. Lock-down and resurrection
Unsurprisingly, this Easter many Christians have compared the story of our Coronavirus lock-down with the story of the locked room where Jesus’ disciples met after his resurrection. Fear for life, fear of the unknown and the need for a barrier to keep danger at bay are common to both stories. Differences between these lock-down storiesContinue reading “34. Lock-down and resurrection”
30. Holy Saturday 2020
When I run Easter workshops in primary schools, we wrap ‘Jesus’ broken body’ in a length of net curtaining and lay it in a ‘tomb’. Jesus’ friends had all disappeared to their homes. How would they be feeling? I give the children three possible choices. They are overwhelmed with grief that their best friend andContinue reading “30. Holy Saturday 2020”
29. Coronavirus – dying well unexpectedly
I’d been writing the blog Sudden death… then what? several months before I began posting it on Word Press in November. It began as an attempt to make sense of the sudden death of my husband Robert in September 2018. I posted 16. Dying well suddenly in February 2020. Several hundred people read it. InContinue reading “29. Coronavirus – dying well unexpectedly”
28. Dear Life! Dying well in a hospice
I’ve just finished reading Rachel Clarke’s Dear Life – a doctor’s story of love and loss. I read an extract at the end of last year and knew I had to read it once it was published. It is a wonderful book. Rachel Clarke is the daughter of a GP. She found the idea ofContinue reading “28. Dear Life! Dying well in a hospice”
27. Rodin’s hands
We spent the Saturday in Paris just before Robert died in the Musée Rodin. It was a bright, early autumn day, warm with a gentle breeze, clear blue sky, signs of browning leaves. Many of Rodin’s sculptures are on permanent display in the garden of the house. Rodin had lived and worked there for manyContinue reading “27. Rodin’s hands”
25. Let’s not think about death!
Every year, during the month of October, the city of Sheffield hosts Off the Shelf, one of the largest literary festivals in the UK. Well over 100 authors introduce their recently published book and respond in a Q&A session. I’ve been to several events this month. The most enjoyable was the Guardian sketch-writer John Crace,Continue reading “25. Let’s not think about death!”
24. Can grief be shared?
Anyone acquainted with grief assures you that everyone’s experience is different. Experts such as Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, with her international best-seller On death and dying, have laid out various stages of grief. But there’s nothing inevitable about these stages. Each response to a death is unique. Yet death itself is something we all have in common!Continue reading “24. Can grief be shared?”
23. Will William use a wheelchair in heaven?
The Castle was the first storybook I wrote. It was a series of short stories about the lives of Ben and Becky, aged 6 and 4. Dad is building the castle for Ben. It’s finished in the last chapter. As the children are being brought up in a Christian home, each story draws on oneContinue reading “23. Will William use a wheelchair in heaven?”
Sudden death... then what? 