Surviving Grief

There’s nothing as devastatingly painful as the loss of a loved one. And getting through this pain will be one of the toughest things any of us will go through in our lives. Grief is a universal experience that everyone will endure at one point in their lives, yet it’s also a uniquely individual journey for every one of us.

On April 24, 1996, Becky Olson was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly, the 43-year-old mother of five and highly successful businesswoman now stood at the crossroads between life and death. Surviving arduous treatments and physical, mental, and emotional turmoil, Becky used the only weapon she had - her hat - to win the battle against the uninvited and overwhelming foe.

While it's tough to understand what leads a person into addiction - to witness someone you love kind-of kill herself - the truth is that you can learn from it. By the time Céline died at age 30, she was Kermit The Frog green and she vomited blood more frequently than she was able to eat. In less than a decade, she had gone from summa cum laude Columbia graduate to NYU PhD student to unemployed, rambling, stumbling drunk saddled with a cirrhotic liver beyond repair.

Are you undergoing the loss of a loved one - a spouse, a partner, a parent, a child, or someone else - who had been a vital part of your life and about whom you cared deeply? Has your loss left you sad, confused, angry, and full of questions that seem to have no answers? If any of these examples describes your current situation, chances are you are experiencing grief - a natural, normal response to encountering any major loss.

Rachel Marie Rabatin is no stranger to grief, and through An Original Grief Guide, she channels what she’s learned on her own journey into frank discussions and practical advice that you can use as a framework for your own experience.

Throughout the centuries, death has been something to be terrified about. The fear comes from the lack of knowing what it is like to experience the last breaths of life. For sure, no one knows exactly what it is like. What is certain is that death leaves a strong impression on us all, not so much as participants, but as witnesses.