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Tag Archives | Loss

Accepting loss

By on 6 May 2012 in All Posts, Weekend Magazine Columns

One mother’s attitude to grief after the death of her child is causing controversy.

Last year I received an amazing letter from Julia Bianco-Garrouche, a woman who recently appeared on Insight talking about grief following the death of her daughter. It was in relation to a column I  wrote about being criticised. I was the first journalist she’d talked to.

“We had moved to Sydney for my husband’s job and had been there about 18 months. Living in Paddington was starting to take its toll on our vivacious and free-spirited daughter, Yasmina, who at 9- years-old, felt cooped up in the terrace. So whenever we came back to our house near the beach north of Wollongong, she would fling open the front door and take off to explore, breathe the fresh air and let her imagination run wild.” Continue Reading →

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Coping with loss

By on 9 September 2011 in All Posts, Weekend Magazine Columns

HOW do we cope with the untimely deaths of close friends? How do we find meaning in grief?

I was overwhelmed with this question recently when I found my old address book and realised that so many friends were no longer around. I was reminded of all the women and men I’ve loved who died so young, leaving young kids or bereaved parents behind: three of cancer, one of Motor Neuron disease, one of a heart attack, two in car accidents, one by suicide.

And I wondered how other people deal with the grief from all the losses we’ve suffered and the impending losses we know are yet to come? Continue Reading →

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Memory Lane

By on 16 March 2011 in All Posts, Weekend Magazine Columns

The Australian

January 29 2011

OVER Christmas, while visiting Melbourne, I stopped outside my nana’s old home.

I drove down the tree-lined avenue that was instantly familiar and walked the street where I played as a child. We lived for a long time in that house. My grandparents took us in when my father was trying to set up business. One of my sisters was born in the house and we played in the huge backyard, using the trees as caves, eating guavas and gooseberries from the trees, and playing imaginary cowgirls, riding the piano stool to victory. Sitting outside the house, I remembered with painful joy my nana and papa dozing by the briquette heater. Continue Reading →

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