HELPING THROUGH THE GRIEF - Page 28
"The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God!"
Fyodor Dostoevsky
February 16, 2004
"Sometimes God just throws one of those big roadblocks in your way and it totally ruins everything. It's kinda hard, sometimes, to believe that those roadblocks actually have a reason for being there. For all you know, it coulda saved you from driving off a cliff."
Written in 2003 by Brittany M., Age 14 --- Texas
I came up with this quote to help motivate myself through a hard time in my life. This quote also helped to motivate my best friend through some tough times in her life and I hope it will do the same for others that read it.
February 16, 2004
About a year ago, my dad committed suicide. I remember how it went exactly. I should; it's gone through my head every day since it happened.
I was at school. The principal came and got me out of first period and brought me down to the office. She told me to sit in a chair and wait for her. But I, acting out, got up and went to talk to a friend. I heard the door open and a familiar voice saying, "Amanda, Dad is dead."
I turned around so fast and saw that it was my brother. I fell to the ground devastated. Our principal came running out of her office because she had heard me screaming. She said to my brother, "Jeremy! She wasn't supposed to find out like this."I wasn't allowed to go with my family or anything. The principal put me in the office and started saying over and over, "Amanda, it's not your fault." I couldn't hear what she was saying. My head had so many things going through it.
My caseworker came to get me and took me to the Foster Care office. All I wanted to do was ask a question. I didn't know what had happened other than that my dad had shot himself and that my brother found him.
The night before my dad and I had a big fight. I remember him saying, "Amanda, I love you and I'm sorry. Don't do this." I told the cops about all the things that had been going on in my house; drugs, rape, and etc. No one should have to put with that. There is a point where you have to draw the line.
I wanted to just go home and hope that things would change, but there had been 16 years of, "I'm sorry, and I love you, I promise I will change." I finally had enough and had to tell someone. I remember saying, "No dad, I hate you!!"
The next day at school after I found out what happened and went to the Foster Care office, all my friends at school got permission from the principal and came to the office and sat outside, hoping they could see me or talk to me. Even though they couldn't see me or talk to me, they still sat out there all day. That made me so happy. I still wish I could of said. "Goodbye, I love you dad." But still, you have to know when to say NO!!
Written in 2004 by Amanda G., Age 17 --- Arkansas
February 16, 2004
"Life happens, death happens, and we learn to move on. But only God can heal the hurts that both life and death have caused."
Written in 2004 by Lauren B., Age 16 --- Louisiana
At my school, in the past 3 years, 12 people have either died of natural reasons, been in car accidents, or they have been murdered. Two weeks ago, 2 of the 12 died three days apart; one was in a car accident and one was murdered. A lot of people were having problems dealing with it, and I was trying to think of some kinda advice to give when this quote came to my head. God is the only one who knows all the answers and he's the only one who we can really lean on when something like that happens.
February 16, 2004
"Forget the pain. Instead cherish the good times you had!"
Copyright © 2003 Emily Jackson
I wrote this to help me through my cousin's death. He died in a car accident.
February 16, 2004
"I really want to thank you for the greatest moments, emotions, and life experiences of my 22 years of life. I couldn't of asked for a more beautiful and perfect companion to share those moments with in my whole existence. You are the light for my fire, the rose in my garden, the queen to my throne, the inspiration of my dreams, and the touch of the warm ocean breeze that keeps blowing ......overwhelming my senses of eternal bliss.
I wish you freedom from the dungeon that our hearts dwell in. No one should ever have to suffer how we shall suffer these enduring times and hopeful doubts of unity. I must someday realize the truth that I will refuse to believe until I lie in the cold ground, shall we not utter the words, but be........we shall someday in destiny be...... Thank you more than you could ever know, I love you eternally without hesitation, but devotion to the greatest woman in my life to bring the purest emotions from my heart..........Thank you"
Copyright © 2003 Mark Fairchild
For anyone who has been deployed overseas, away from their loved ones. Time and family are the only two things you can't get back in life. If you have time or family enjoy them because you may never have them again.
February 16, 2004
"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?"
Kahlil Gibran
February 16, 2004
"On a day of burial there is no perspective--for space itself is annihilated. Your dead friend is still a fragmentary being. The day you bury him is a day of chores and crowds, of hands false or true to be shaken, of the immediate cares of mourning. The dead friend will not really die until tomorrow, when silence is round you again. Then he will show himself complete, as he was--to tear himself away, as he was, from the substantial you. Only then will you cry out because of him who is leaving and whom you cannot detain."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
February 16, 2004
"Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute; we must simply hold out and see it through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; God doesn't fill it, but on the contrary, keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
February 16, 2004
"Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible."
Winston Churchill