In the twelfth episode of the Mindfulness & Grief Podcast, I interview Dave Roberts, LMSW, author, and founder of Bootsy & Angel Books, LLC, and most importantly, the father of Jeannine, who died of a rare form of cancer when she was 18. Dave supports other grieving parents through his work with The Compassionate Friends, in his private practice, and through writing, speaking, and teaching in the psychology department at Utica College.
I write to think about questions that are preoccupying me. In my novel Landslide, I consider how resilience arises out of catastrophic loss. When I started the novel, my mother and three close friends had died. My husband had battled cancer. I had gone through unexplained, early menopause which also felt like sorrow and loss.
Major Griffith, USMC, was killed in action on December 14, 2011 by an enemy Taliban sniper. Sam was a beloved Marine Corps Officer who embodied perseverance and grit. His death greatly impacted the lives of all that knew and loved him and changed the course of Renee’s life forever. When Sam died, I realized I
Though it has been almost five years, I remember clearly the moment my father’s spirit slipped from this physical plane into the great unknown. Even though he had been ill for some time, until that moment I had denied the fact that his death was on the horizon because I knew—in the darkest places of
