Category: life
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Sacred Sundays
No doubt due to my Catholic upbringing, I hold Sundays as sacred even though I no longer subscribe to an organized religious dogma. In my youth, Sundays meant attending Sunday mass and getting Dunkin’ Donuts afterwards. As a young wife and mother we made it family day and either went out for crepes or we…
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Why Throw A Living Memorial?
My husband turned 70 this week and the pre-Corona plan was to throw him an Honor Dinner (or Living Memorial) to celebrate his life. Now you might be asking what is the difference between an Honor Dinner and a birthday party. Quite simply it is the sentiment expressed. Let’s think about a regular memorial for…
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Best Death Possible (part two) – A Daughter’s Mission
The Difference A Doula Makes An experienced Death Doula is someone familiar with many faces of death. While death is universal in its presence, it is individual in its experience. In my situation, a Doula would’ve been outside the grief circle, someone who could hold space for me as I expended my energy fighting for…
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Attachment To Things Has Gotten A Bad Rap
In a country where hoarding is an epidemic, while simultaneously Marie Kondo has become a celebrity for downsizing, it’s important to understand the reason behind our attachment to possessions and the therapeutic value ‘things’ have in grieving. “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” 🎶 a popular lyric and a popular trend when…
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A Dialogue About Death
Every story ever written has a beginning, middle and an end. Every author considers the end when first sitting down to write a storyline; However in the greatest story an individual will ever author, the end is often left unscripted. We can’t write death in on our calendars and begin to plan when it seems…
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The Story Of Hope
I come into people’s lives at times when hope is challenged. I hear phrases such as, “we aren’t giving up hope”, “there’s no hope” and “it’s hopeless”. Individuals often describe feeling hopeless as well. Hope is not a feeling. It is something you feel yes, but in and of itself, hope is not a feeling.…
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Heart Break
I support people who are facing their end stage of life and their families. What does that mean exactly? It means I provide non-medical services to 1) individuals diagnosed with a life-limiting/altering disease, disorder or condition; 2) individuals who have received a terminal prognosis; 3) individuals age 60 or over; 4) individuals who have had…
Judith Klemos 