Blog
Welcome to the Grief Matters blog. We intend for this space to provide an opportunity for the Grief Matters community to write, read, share, and reflect about ‘all things grief.’ At Grief Matters, we understand grief as the experience of loss. This loss could be a death (a human, an animal). It could also be the loss of something else: your health, a job, an opportunity, a future goal, or dream.
While grief can look and feel different to every individual, we live our grief within our social networks and in our communities. We feel that community matters deeply to the experience of grief. So, we invite you to share with us in order to help create more grief-attuned communities.
How does grief matter to you?
What grief matters are important to you?
Email us your ideas about how you could contribute to the Grief Matters blog. Please see our guest bloggers guidelines.
Read our past newsletters.
Surrendering to My Grief One Step at a Time
Grief has been a journey best travelled on foot for me. Walking helped me navigate through my mother’s unexpected illness and eventual death in 2021. Often, I strolled through the neighbouring streets of the hospice where my mom spent her last months, seeking solace from the looming reality of her impending death. The day I received the call of her passing, my husband suggested a walk in one of my favourite urban parks. Unsure of what else to do, I laced up my shoes and mustered the energy to put one foot in front of the other.
Photo by Sarah Burm
Setting the Stage for Community Grieving
Recently, my mom called me and asked if I wanted to head to Toronto to see a new musical with her. She said, “It’s about death and dying, so it’s right up our alley.” My mom knows me well and quickly added,“Oh, it uses Roy Orbison’s music.” As a musician and long-time admirer of the rock music scene from the 60s to the 80s, I could not say no.
Photo by Kyle Head
My Grief is on Full Display
My grief is on full display daily. I have been wearing my grief, in a variety of forms, for the past 22 years. When my son died just hours after he was born, his tiny body was taken in a bassinet to the morgue and I was told that I was free to go home. I had to collect my bag, my clothes, my hopes and dreams, and leave the hospital without him.
Introducing Susan MacLeod, Cartoonist-in-Residence at Grief Matters!
Recently, my drawing practice has turned to creating grief and death stories in the hope my cartooning can lessen my real fear of death, grief, and loss as I age. I’ve been drawing people in nursing homes for well over ten years now.
*Photo by CBC
What does it mean to grieve ‘well’?
We recently had the pleasure of being guests on the podcast, Sickboy (you can listen to that episode here. It was a live recording at the Halifax Central Library (so much fun!) During the conversation, co-host Jeremie Saunders made a comment that has stuck with us since. Jeremie observed that he “did not grieve well” and had been “a bad griever” after his beloved dog Bigby died.
*Photo by Jeremie Saunders