The Grieving Process

Thursday, April 3, 2008
Did you know there are five basic steps to grieving? Well, some experts say ten and others say four, or six, or eleven, or even twelve. But most of my research keeps pointing back to the five stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying.

If you can't tell, I'm exploring the topic of bereavement for a story I'm writing. I want to properly show a mother mourning the loss of her three-month old daughter. But I'm quickly learning this is not an easy task. After reading a newspaper article, interviewing a mother who'd just lost her baby, I could tell she was still in the denial stage and I just wanted to cry for her because she couldn't yet.

The whole thing was hard to read, so I have no idea why I though writing about it would be any simpler. But if one person reads my tale and feels comforted, realizing they're not alone in their pain and life will eventually move past this agony, then all that hard work will be worth it.

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