Posts: 32,055
5/31/09 8:44 P

Hello and welcome back...glad to see you here. I hope your enjoyed the time you get to spend with your parents...that time is very special also. Most of all thank you so very much for sharing this. I think I will do a grief letter/journal also. It is never to late to do this and I'm sure it will help me a lot. It is still so very hard for me and I know it has to be for my Richelle. Her other dog is dealing better at the moment but she has been having some real issues with missing him. She can't remember her life without him so it is a major adjustment for her also.
Thank you so much for this wonderful message. I am so glad that God had you write this message and I was able to read it today. It was just meant to be as our internet system has been down for two days and isn't supposed to be worked until later tonight. The first thing I saw was your comment on my page saying you had joined this team.
I am going to get The Grief Recovery HandBook by James and Friedman. I think it will be very helpful for me.

This past week has been extra hard for me as it was also the anniversary of the death of Richelle's father and the love of my life...17 years of missing a very wonderful man.
May God bless you as you continue your journey to a healthier you.

Helen

Edited by: MOMMA_BEAR_69 at: 5/31/2009 (20:45)

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5/29/09 12:59 P

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who so kindly welcomed me to the team. I'm sorry I did not respond right away - I was at my parents lake house and in the mountains so we have no internet and it's to expensive to get any kind put in right now. So there will be many times this summer where I will be offline for several days. Anyway I didn't want to let another day go by without saying HELLO. I don't know if others have already mentioned this but actually before my Belle passed away in December I did something people might consider kind of dumb but it helped me out tremendously. I'm not big into scrap booking and not the artistic type unless it has to do with creative writing but I did what I called a grief letter/journal. I had taken a college class that specifically dealt with grief and we were taught to write a letter to the person whom was passing away or whom already had. Anyway the three parts of the letter included things you wished you had done differently, things you forgave the other for (I forgave Belle for chewing up my favorite NY Yankee hat when she was 2 or 3) and then things you were grateful for. My journal grief letter almost filled up the entire book. It's funny how pets are so much like people that there are things they have done for you, things you wish you had done more with them or for them, and things that they did that you forgive them for and even laugh at in the aftermath. I also pasted photocopied pictures inside the remaining pages and wrote two songs - Circle of Life and Warren Zevons song Keep Me In Your Heart. It really helped me pull things together into a cohesive thought process. My original plan was to bury the book with Belle - I had completed it during the time she was still with us as a way to deal with her impending death. However, my parents and brothers thought it was better that I keep it and so I have it out on my desk and it reminds me of her. I don't read it often but here and there. Next month she will be gone 6 months and the pain and grief is still evident throughout the family. I just thought I'd share that with you all as something I did and the format of the letter I wrote. It comes out of a book called THe Grief Recovery HandBook by James and Friedman I think. Anyway I write too much. My main reason for posting was to thank you all for the warm welcome and let you know why it took me so long to return. I look forward to getting to know you and your stories more and giving and receiving support. Take care.

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