Longterm visitors to this blog will know that I love to walk. Walking in countryside or along the coast brings is just about my favourite activity. I tend to set myself goals for walking that push me a bit harder than I am able… so much so that finding my way and/or putting one step…
Recently I wrote about the aloneness of grief, but there is another side to the story which is the topic of this post: the solidarity of grief. It is remarkable how much more aware we become of other people’s death and loss after our own loss. Catherine, my daughter, took her own life. Ever since,…
Inquests in England and Wales: What do they achieve? What are their limits? Practical information and some personal commentary.
I received a very sad call yesterday evening informing me that the son of someone I’ve been getting to know through church had died unexpectedly. The medical cause is not yet clear, but it appears it might have been a stroke or an aneurysm that caused him to collapse and crash his car. He was 41…
(This is a faith – themed post) The day I drove to my daughter’s house, worried because she had not answered her phone, was the worst in my life. Standing in the garden at the side, in the shadow of the house, I was told by the police the most agonising, heartbreaking, painful words I…
This is a abbreviated version of an article I wrote several years ago, that’s just been published in Compassion, the quarterly newsletter of The Compassionate Friends. I’ve mentioned before about therapeutic writing. I find that writing is a way of processing emotions; reading back over what you have written earlier can actually be encouraging because you might find that…
There is quite a bit of discussion nowadays about improving mental health services, which have too often been the poor cousin in our National Health Service. That’s good news. But the provision of mental health services isn’t what I’m writing about today. It’s outcomes. When someone is diagnosed with cancer and receives treatment, they may or…
