Every experience of grief is worthy of journalling your feelings. Facts and emotions are too easily forgotten. When this happens they lose their significance and heartfelt meaning. A paragraph or two will cause a flood of memories to flow that were once emerged into daily living. You may never do anything more with your memories than jot a few notes and over time, add a few more points of reality and sentiments. You might not feel called upon to act on those impressions. But then again, if you decide to send a letter or a card to someone connected to your experience, that’s a bonus. You might bring some sunshine into another’s life.

On May 17th, 2016, I received an email from Glynis Belec of Angel Hope Publishing inviting me to become part of a team she was building to write stories, poems, etc about grief. It didn’t take me long to accept her invitation. The team formed with five other writers along with our publisher. Although the stories were not always easy to recall and to write, I am privileged to see them within the covers of Good Grief People.,  Ten months later, on March 10th, 2017 we sat in Tim Horton’s excited to hold the book in our hands.

Good Grief People is a work of love, acknowledging our lives with others and sharing our loss. It validates how much we cared for people as well as our desire to know them in life and in their dying. It is a message of confidence that remembering, writing and sharing is important to keep our loved ones close to our heart. It is an invitation for those who read the stories to think about people they’ve loved. This invitation stretches us to write those memories down on black and white in letters, journals, blogs, emails and scribbles on whatever is handy.

If this blog reminds you of an experience of being with someone in their last days, take a few moments and write it in your journal. Six months from now when you reread it, you’ll be glad you did it. Visit http://www.donnamann.org for grief selections and other material.