Tag: death

Flies’ Goodbyes

Neesa Suncheuri

We met, we bartered, we pricked at a dead fly with needles. The papery light above us, a hangout for living cousins. Or perhaps he looks down on us now again, already reincarnated. All with gnashed teeth, insane smiles, buzzing … Damn them. Small hairs on my husband’s head, balding, Read more

Neesa Suncheuri

Neesa Suncheuri works as a mental health peer specialist at a housing agency in Queens, New York. She is the founder of a Facebook discussion group for peer specialists and other recovery enthusiasts, entitled “What is Wellness? A Mental Health Discussion Group.” She also maintains a blog called Unlearning Schizophrenia, and is a regular contributor of poetry and fiction at Organic Coffee, Haphazardly. She is also a singer/songwriter, and an enthusiast of the German language and culture.

Sometimes You Just Know

Jodie Beckstine Killian

We were friends for 87 days before we started dating. Despite being told you should date someone taller, prettier, smarter, more religious, you asked me out. When asked why, you said YOU KNEW. We dated for 438 days before we were married. Despite being told we were too young, to Read more

Jodie Beckstine Killian

Jodie Beckstine Killian has always been a little different. Growing up in a small Wisconsin town she stood out from the rest as a person born with Hypochondroplasia. As a budding entertainer, this wasn’t a disability but a “super” ability that allowed her to get noticed, but not always in the way she hoped. Stares, discrimination and cruel comments are something she deals with daily and writes about often. She currently lives in Florida. (She doesn’t miss Wisconsin winters). She works in marketing, social media and is currently writing her first novel.

10 Ways to Live Your Life to the Fullest

SA Smith

I was at a funeral the other day of a dear friend’s daughter and child. After many tears, the clergy stood to read us the eulogy. He told us of a poem by Linda Ellis called “The Dash”. He spoke of the date of birth and the date of death, Read more

SA Smith

SA Smith has always loved the magical life. She is the bestselling Amazon author of FOREVER, her four part young adult paranormal romance series. She is an advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. Believing that we are all enough just as we are, and needing to spread that word far and wide. Having been diagnosed with CRPS over 12 years ago, SA also uses her writing to increase social awareness of the disease. Writing is her passion. She often tells friends that writing is a journey for her. It’s like spending time with friends. "I just follow my characters along on their adventures, like a fly on the wall, and see where they take me." SA currently lives in Florida with her best friend/husband and their one son.

Getting Real On Grief

Kristina Farrow

Flick. The sound of the red Bic lighter. Inhale. Hold it. Exhale. Breathe air. Looking out at the Bay as if it were already a black and white photograph on postcard paper with tattered edges. Sad, waves invoked the gravity of my tears streaming down my cold and blistered cheeks. Read more

Kristina Farrow

Kristina is a lover of art, poetry, philosophy, Dostoevsky (and other classic lit), everything French and Japanese, cats, the West Coast and dreams...

No One Taught Us How to Cope With the Business of Death

Erin Wilburn

“I am a woman, phenomenally.  Phenomenal woman, that’s me.”  Maya Angelou Heather W, Mara, Melissa, Barb, Alison, Jennifer, Heather J, Mary, Jenny, Carrie. These are 10 women I’ve crossed paths with over the last 22 months who lost their husbands at a very young age, mostly unexpected. Some of these women Read more

Erin Wilburn

Erin Wilburn is 32 years old, now living in the heart of the New River Gorge in beautiful Fayetteville, West Virginia. She loves exploring the outdoors whether it's on her mountain bike through the trails or in her kayak through the rapids. She moved to the Appalachian mountains a few months after losing her husband and best friend, John, in a tragic kayaking accident in Northern California on March 9, 2014. John was only 30 years old. Erin and John lived in Southern Oregon at the time and had a wonderful, adventurous life together. Shortly after his death, Erin began to write. Writing has been an outlet for her pain and experience so far with this huge loss. Her hope is that by being honest with herself and others about what it is like to walk through deep grief, it may help others as well. You can read more about her experiences and perspective on her blog. Erin has also recently put together the John Duncan Wilburn Adventure Scholarship that is associated the Shenandoah Community Foundation, in honor of her beloved husband. The scholarship is open to applicants and donors alike.

My Lover Does Not Deserve Black

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios

I wear scarlet to his funeral, a beautiful floor-length affair with sleeves that flick the air like flames, a splash of red electricity. I swirl with the bagpipe’s skirls. Sounds hunchbacked and keening, drench the mourners crushed in black, mute and dark eyed. I am the solitary scarlet bell. My Read more

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios’ poetry has appeared in Clementine, Silver Birch Press, Kentucky Review, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable and Silkworm, in forthcoming issues of Edison Literary Review, Crack the Spine, Poeming Pidgeon and Unsplendid. She co-wrote the book Party Line under the name Elizabeth Kirkpatrick. She has studied with Judith Harris, Gloria Boyer, Hailey Leithauser, Sue Ellen Thompson and Alexandra Van de Kamp. Elizabeth is a professor emerita from American University in Washington DC, having chaired the vocal and music departments. Vrenios’ solo recitals throughout the United States, South America, Scandinavia, Japan and Europe have been acclaimed, and as the artistic director of the Redwoods Opera Workshop in Mendocino, California, and the Crittenden Opera Workshop in Washington D.C. and Boston, she has influenced and trained students across the country. She is a member of the international Who’s Who of Musicians, and is the past National President of the National Opera Association.

A Mother’s Love Never Dies

JR Roessl

Do not go gentle into that good night. – Dylan Thomas “Hey Mom, are you gonna die soon?” This was a question my daughter whispered to me as I tucked her into bed a few nights ago. No, readers, I’m not sick with some terminal illness; I’m just an older Read more

JR Roessl

After more than thirty years as a model and actor, JR moved to the Hudson Valley in 2006. She lives in an 1880 renovated barn with her husband and young daughter and three crazy bengal cats. She received her B.A. in creative writing from NYU and has written a memoir about her teenage years spent sailing on the high seas. She is thrilled to be writing for the Feminine Collective.