Grief happens

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."  Psalm 30:5
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French grief, from grever ‘to burden’ (see grieve) .

I like that. To burden, specifically, to burden with sorrow.
It’s been a sad week. My heart goes out to the community of Truckee, California; to friends in Oregon who have endured losses, both expected and age appropriate and not. My work has brought me in touch with many people recently that have walked the Grief walk through death, foreclosure, the experience of family separation. The reality is, we will all encounter death and other losses, we will have to walk with Grief, for however long or brief a time is required for us to allow it to grow us and renew us.

Grief? Grows and renews? Oh yes, indeed. When we let it.

Like a fertile garden that must die back in the winter to make room for new growth in the spring, grief prunes away that which is unnecessary and brings us down to that which really matters and of which we can be certain — Today.

We tend to fight grief off. We numb our selves — “gotta get back to work”, “gotta get on with life”, “here, let me pour you a strong one”.  We get frustrated with people who don’t “move on”.  We want folks to grieve their losses on our timeline, because, frankly, other people’s grief makes us uncomfortable.

Grief and I are quite good acquaintances.  As a young child, I had two classmates lose multiple siblings in car accidents (all teenagers).  As a teen myself, I encountered 10 losses in 18 months around my sophomore year, including my own father and a man as dear to me.  There were car accidents, gunshot wounds, hit and runs.  Cousin, friends, and parent.  I grew through my childhood believing that when you are a teenager, a lot of people die.

Raised by a Depression-era mother who’d lost her own mother at 14 and then withdrew and didn’t talk to anyone for almost a year, I was encouraged to “pull myself up by my bootstraps”, “put on a happy face”, “don’t wear my heart on my sleeve” — colloquialisms all for “get over it”.  I’m sure my sadness brought up her youthful loss and neither one of us had any kind of road map for the sadness, or how grief works.  Without guidance, I had no model for how to pull myself back together.

(Beloved Swiss physician, hospice proponent and author Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had not yet published her outstanding guidebook on Grief and Loss).  We were adrift in a sea of feelings, and really, it took me decades to benefit from Grief.

Grief doesn’t go away because we will it to, anymore than those we’ve lost will come back to us.  Grief goes away when we are done.  Grief isn’t a one-size-fits-all experience.  Different situations bring it about differently.  As our parents age, especially getting into their 8th or 9th decade, we can predict our time with them is limited.  There is both a savoring of the days we get together, and often an anticipatory grieving, as we imagine what life will be like without them.  This is also often true of those who’s loved ones suffer a chronic, exacerbating, terminal illness.  A lot of the grieving occurs as the family prepares for the loss.

The difference in my grief experience between the unexpected and untimely death of my father and the slow aging and peaceful, expected, hospice-supported passing of my mother have no comparison*.  I was so at peace when my mother took her last breath, I had a chance to say my goodbyes, make my amends, and there was no sense of regret.  I miss her — to be sure —  and certain milestones make me sad she isn’t here to celebrate with us.  But the pain I feel around losing my dad at 16 still flares up with sharp edges and an enduring sense of loss — 37 years later.

*Hospice supported my mother’s emotional and spiritual healing process preceding her death, and kept her very comfortable near the end.  They supported the family by asking the right questions to get us talking, clarify values, make plans, and deal with the “business” of death.  Hospice care is generally offered to anyone with a life expectancy of less than 6 months, for whom medical care will not be accessed to prolong life.  In my humble opinion, everyone facing an imminent loss should have a hospice team at their disposal.

Here’s what I’ve learned about grief, and what I want to share with you, especially my friends in this very tender week:

There are predictable stages of the process.  They are not sequential, you may return to one over again, months or years later.  Denial (this isn’t happening).  Bargaining (“Wait God!  If I…. then will you take this cup from me?”) Anger (THIS ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN!) Depression (which is quieter and people tend to withdraw and lick their emotional wounds)  Acceptance (the time when you realize it’s OK to be sad, and happy.  To love someone and miss them, and look around your own life, take stock, and be grateful again, realizing you are not being disloyal to their memory by getting up and getting on.)  Any state that begins to interfere with activities or daily living, or sadness that brings on suicidal thoughts needs to be addressed by a team who can help you negotiate this passage.

Different losses require different processes.  A parent losing a child is not going to incorporate the pain and heal the same way an adult child saying goodbye to an octogenarian parent will, nor should they.  The first loss in a circle of friends is not going to resolve easily, because this experience is so new and you don’t know how to feel, or how long you’ll have to feel.

Don’t replace sadness with anger.  Allow sadness.  Allow time.  Allow memories and sharing and stories.  Sadness will burden you, but not forever.  Trying to dodge it by numbing it with excessive activity or chemicals or television won’t make it go away.  Sadness will have it’s day, will leave it’s mark, and like metal tempered in the fire, will make you strong in ways you never knew you were weak, will reveal love from directions you’d never noticed it coming before.

I send love to those I know need it this morning, and to those who know this walk painfully and intimately.  Death and loss are part of our human experience.  Allow it to be what it is, seek love from those around you, be tender with yourself, protect those walking this walk with you.

With loving kindness this morning,

Katherine

Aging Happens…

Aging Happens…

…and will involve our parents, ourselves, and our children. In this new millennium and with the tide of Baby Boomers surging forward, it is time to see past the cultural invisibility of Aging and engage in conversation about values, needs and positive, family inclusive solutions for Elder Care. The sentiment “Failing to plan is planning to fail” more acutely accurate when we neglect to anticipate the predictably changing needs of our parents. In “Holding Hands: Journeying with the Aging Family” you will learn:

• How the “nuclear family” model made our Elders invisible, and how to we must begin seeing them again

• The Co-Generational model: assessing each generation’s strengths and developmental tasks to help you envision an integrated network of support for all the family members in a maturing family system

• Strategies for initiating conversations between three generations to promote balance through planning

• Addressing the six core human needs (Thank you Tony Robbins!): certainty, uncertainty, significance, love, contribution, spiritual and personal growth and why we must help our Elders reconnect and stay connected with them

• Identifying resources so you know where to turn for support on a moment’s notice

• Creating “life plans” for the most common “unexpected” life events so small curves in the road don’t become critical collisions!

When uncertainty is the rule (and it becomes moreso as we age) Love is what remains at the core. Here’s to all the things that let peace and dignity blossom at such a challenging and transitional time: Validation. Respect. Empathy. Kindness. Thinking outside the box. Holding Hands: The Art of Parent Care provides an integrated approach to navigating the Journey of the Aging Family.

 

To reserve your copy of Holding Hands: The Art of Parent Care, please fill out the contact form below, and keep an eye on the blog for more exerpts of the book to be posted in the upcoming weeks!

 

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The Art of Parent Care: Help me know what you need.

Thank you for filling out my poll.  I hope to use this information to guide me in my blogging, so I am addressing the issues most pressing to my readers.  Remember, we’re all in this together!

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The Art of Parent Care: Help me know what you need.

Thank you for filling out my poll.  I hope to use this information to guide me in my blogging, so I am addressing the issues most pressing to my readers.  Remember, we’re all in this together!

[polldaddy poll=6801129]

Welcome to Holding Hands, a map for the Journey of the Aging Family

My name is Katherine Davis.  I am a nurse, mom, retired midwife and passionate advocate for families.  In my younger years, this meant supporting attachment parenting and assisting families with preparing for the birth of their children.  In my current life, I have taken that philosophy of attachment in the family and applied it to the most fragile members, our Elders, as they transition from independence to interdependence in their aging.  Daily, I hear about the challenges the middle generation (my generation) faces trying to balance parenting their children and being advocates for their parents’ changing needs.
I know this struggle, this dance on a tightrope of needs, having raised my teenagers through the last 6 years of my mother’s life, much of that punctuated with medical visits, hospitalizations, unexpected behaviors, and generally a lack of planning and a lot of “crisis” reactivity.  In retrospect, I can see how I could have set us all up (3 generations) for success, but didn’t have the tools to anticipate the needs of my loved ones.  Now I take that knowledge and wish to share it with you, fellow travelers.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.  It is my fondest desire that you find support, hope and maybe a pearl or two of wisdom that is of use to you in your own journey with your aging family.
Many blessings,

Katherine Davis, RN, BSN, CCM