Ellie’s Goodbye
Ellie breathes heavily as I cradle her, her lovely green eyes closed. We’re on a bench at the back of the large, crowded waiting room of the animal hospital. Technicians stand at the front and call animals’ names, inviting people and their pets into the exam rooms. For routine exams or emergencies or…for the reason […]
Lightkeeper, Preface
Editor’s Note: At Grief Dialogues, we believe art helps us carry what grief leaves behind. Photographer and author Stacy Bass shows us how images and words can preserve love, memory, and light. Her journey from Speak, Memory to her forthcoming memoir Lightkeeper reminds us that even in loss, creativity can sustain us and connect us to one another. Read my interview with Stacy Bass here. —Elizabeth Coplan Preface I’m afraid I am beginning to forget. I always thought I had a great memory. I remember lots of things with little meaning. Like my childhood home phone number: 226-6634. And the number
Creative Grief: The Wind Phone Connection
If you are anything like me, then you look back at your life to see the patterns, and how certain choices propelled you forward or held you back. In surveying the landscape of my past, it is clear that the last six years have been my most difficult to date: I lost both of my parents, we survived a global pandemic, I had major surgery on my throat, my only child transitioned, got married, divorced, and moved away, I lost touch with my birth family, and my 26-year marriage ended in divorce after long-term betrayal. So, yeah, that is a lot
Cemetery Poems
I believe we are all here to assist one another in reaching a higher state of self. I hope there is at least one person who benefits from my own journey in recovering through creative process. February 11, 2020: Traumatic brain injury (a total reset of all internal workings) March 19, 2020: First day of stay-at-home order due to pandemicMay 3 – June 14, 2020: Start healing through a photo essay project, solo walks in the cemetery Did you know nerve endings can regenerate one millimeter every day. Baby steps, actually micro steps in recovering after
