How to Deal With the Loss of a Friend

One of the most challenging aspects of life in retirement is the dealing with the death of friends we consider contemporaries. Coping with loss is never easy, but during retirement, such losses can be especially trying because they reinforce the reality that we have entered a new phase of life, and they force us to come to terms with our own mortality.

The Triumph of Death - William Blake's poem offers comfort to its readers

What with the Christian holiday of Easter taking place yesterday, and the Jewish holiday of Passover beginning this past Friday, I thought it was fitting to choose a religious poem for this week’s “The Next Chapter.” William Blake’s “Night” makes … Continue reading

How to help a friend who is grieving.

I am not one to reach out to people for help, ever.  I am the person people come to when they need help.  I’ve always been the go – to person.  Suddenly, I found myself at the other end and I could not ask for help.

There is so much you can do to help someone who has experienced a loss.  For me, delivering our daughter stillborn has been the most horrific thing I’ve ever faced