GriefHaven Blog | Insights and Stories of Healing

May 27, 2020

Self Acceptance Is The Key To Happiness

Happiness is more than just a feeling; it is something we can all practise on a daily basis. But people are better at some 'happy habits' than others. In fact, the one habit that corresponds most closely with us being satisfied with our lives overall -- self-acceptance -- is often the one we practise least. 5,000 people surveyed by the charity Action for Happiness, in collaboration with Do Something Different, rated themselves between 1 and 10 on ten habits identified from the latest scientific research as being key to happiness.

October 20, 2020

Her, By Suzanne Camejo

Permeates every path
Only scientists can
Discern
Her fingertips on
Photographs
On the perfume

April 14, 2020

How Stress Remodels The Brain

Research led by Si-Qiong June Liu, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has shown how stress changes the structure of the brain and reveals a potential therapeutic target to the prevent or reverse it. The findings are published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Working in a mouse model, Liu and her research team found that a single stressful event produced quick and long-lasting changes in astrocytes, the brain cells that clean up chemical messengers called neurotransmitters after they've communicated information between nerve cells.

October 19, 2020

GOOD NIGHT SWEET KNIGHT

I thought I'd share a song I wrote for my son...
David was a Gulf War vet who died as a result of Gulf War Illness which he suffered with for 13 years...he was 36.

GOOD NIGHT SWEET KNIGHT

My grief is a constant companion
Too familiar the sting of my tears

October 4, 2024

Bridging the Gap After a Child Dies

Each of us has coped in our own way, and we continue to function in practical terms, although the early months were pretty rocky for us both, as you might expect. We’ve been seeing a couples therapist who has been helpful in coaching us through various disagreements more peacefully, and this has helped our communication about points of friction between us.

December 29, 2013

Grief Relief Television

Finding Hope After Loss On This show Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Heidi Horsley explore the topic of finding meaning after a loss. They interview two inspirational women who rather than be broken by their experience have used their tragic losses to make meaning and to help others.

April 18, 2024

Wildfire recovery: What victims say they need most

It's been three months since the start of a devastating series of wildfires that raged through Los Angeles from Jan. 7 to Jan. 31. As victims pick up the pieces of their lives, a study published in Environmental Research: Health from the UC Davis School of Medicine offers insights into what victims may need in the short and long term.

September 10, 2025

What Grieving Children Need

Do you think young children don't grieve? Do you think young children will eventually get over the loss or forget that it occurred as they get older, the way they will forget other things in life? If you said yes to either of those questions, you are not alone. Many people believe one or both of those answers to be yes. The truth is that all children of all ages grieve.

October 19, 2020

In Moments Like This

In moments like this,
I realize once more how much you meant to me.
Time has brought some healing,
and abated the pain that I felt when you died.

November 14, 2017

Interview With Former Mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan

Richard Riordan Interviewed by Susan Whitmore My name is Dick Riordan , and my former wife, Genie, and I had five children—four daughters and a son. My son was killed in a scuba diving accident picking up shellfish to cook for his friends 21 years ago, and my daughter died of a heart attack when she was 19 about 19 years ago. My daughter’s name is Carol, and my son’s name is Billy. Billy loved to cook. So he would go out in the early mornings in a shallow bay and pick up shellfish to take home and cook for his friends. One morning 21 years ago, he went out in this bay, in about 15 or 20 feet of water, and he died there. Even so, we buried Billy at sea because he wanted to have his body recycled if anything ever happened to him. Of course, we never […]

July 4, 2025

Depressive symptoms may hasten memory decline in older people

The researchers concluded that depression and memory were closely interrelated, with both seeming to affect each other. The researchers concluded that depression and memory were closely interrelated, with both seeming to affect each other. Senior author Dr Dorina Cadar, of the UCL Department of Behavioral Science & Health and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said: "It is known that depression and poor memory often occur together in older people, but what comes first has been unclear.

October 16, 2020

To All Parents

I’ll lend you for a little time a child of mine, he said, For you to love the while she lives and mourn for when she’s dead, Maybe six or seven years or twenty-two or three, But will you, ‘til I call her back, take care of her for me?