I CHRONICLE THIS EVENT A Christian Blog on Loss and GrievingIntroduction: Processing Loss, Week 1emily ulman/19Jun25 To my new Christian blog on loss and grieving, for now an 8-week series, this is its introduction focusing on processing loss. I lost my mom this year. The cause of death was listed on her certificate as End Stage Dementia due to Adult Failure to Thrive, an immense understatement. How many strokes could a deteriorating brain withstand? I’d wondered this, until her last. Then it became clear, she could take no more. Mom...

I CHRONICLE THIS EVENT A Christian Blog on Loss and Grieving The Passing Space, Week 2 of 8 emily ulman/26Jun25 An eight-week blog on Loss and Grieving, this is Week 2, The Passing Space: Just inside the entrance of the facility is a curious room. Peaking in, I feel drawn. Its size none too large, its many windows fronted with leafy greens and growings. Outside winter light, filtering in through airy yellow curtains, softly fills the space. Few furnishings are here, a couple cushioned benches line two walls while a small wooden table with...

I CHRONICLE THIS EVENT A Christian Blog on Loss and Grieving Her Precious Gift, Week 3 of 8 emily ulman/7July25 An eight-week blog on Loss and Grieving, this is Week 3, Her Precious Gift: Enroute to the holiday service at church, it’s 5:15 p.m. and dark outside on this Christmas Eve as we, my husband, grown daughter, and I, stop in to see Mom. We find her in the home’s common area, asleep in her wheelchair. Her head slumped forward, her aromatic plate of homecooked dinner sits in front of her, barely touched. The reduced holiday staff...

I CHRONICLE THIS EVENT A Christian Blog on Loss and Grieving Our Turn, Week 4 of 8 emily ulman/14July25 Mom’s weekend is accompanied by another stoke, a severe one. Today, now bedridden, she can only weakly look at me, with recognition, and move her right hand to brush it against my cheek, in tender motherly affection. Her aide lifts a strawed drink to her mouth, she can sip only a little. On this cold Tuesday evening, her large family lovingly fills her bedside. Wednesday morning, Mom is no longer alert. Most of the day I sit by her bed...

I CHRONICLE THIS EVENTA Christian Blog on Loss and Grieving To Not Die Inside, Week 5 of 8 emily ulman/17July25An eight-week blog on Loss and Grieving, this is Week 5, To Not Die Inside:Here in this passing space as I sit quietly with Mom, I study her. Her permed hair, soft and grayed all about her face, still has dark through it. Her skin, soft and pale, is lined and marked by time. We share facial and hand features.Mom was born a feisty, Kentucky mountain girl with a special affection for children and pets. She raised a house load of...

I CHRONICLE THIS EVENTA Christian Blog on Loss and GrievingThe Fracturing, Week 6 of 8 emily ulman/25July25O Lord I need You, ne-ed You, O how I need You, ne-ed You…This evening, her breathing, it is laboredHere in this room of tranquility in this caring facilityAccompanied with the coming and going of family, saddened To nighttime has turned the day, as we by her side remainThe many hours slowly passing, we each at her staringHer limbs, they are cooling, her breathing, weakenedHer arms now cold, her breaths now spacedOver her pillow I...

I CHRONICLE THIS EVENT A Christian Blog on Loss and GrievingDeath Is Never Satisfied, Week 7 of 8 emily ulman/5Aug25 Like having been snatched up into a massive tornadic event, jostled wildly about then slammed back into place. This is how I’m suddenly feeling, left reeling. As the storm, the separation of death has brought to my life, is dissipating, with its depth of loss accompanied by mad stress and busyness, I find myself struggling. My life’s journey, it continues on. But this me of now – saddened, stung by death’s severe sting – is...

I CHRONICLE THIS EVENT A Christian Blog on Loss and GrievingOf Significance, Week 8 of 8 emily ulman/12Aug25 In having personally experienced loss of both parents, suddenly of my dad, painstakingly of my mom, I’ve noticed something of significance. In losing my dad, there was an excruciating emotional pain. In losing my mom, the one from whose body my own body was birthed, there was also excruciating emotional pain, but so too an unexpected physical hurt unlike any I’ve known before. The severing of this maternal connection brought a...