Tuesday

Today was the day (the second Tuesday of the month) that I went to the bereavement counseling at Memorial Sloan Kettering. I am kind of looking forward to these sessions because I really like the atmosphere and the people.

Today there were six people. Three from previous sessions and three new arrivals. Unfortunately the interest for such counseling will never abate. People will always die and there will always be family members who need help.

We will not graduate from this. There is no final exam. It just goes on and people come until they no longer need support from others.

There are people whos loved one passed away quite a while ago and then there are people who lost loved one just recently.

Two women lost husbands, two men (incl. me) lost wives and two women lost mothers. That was today's composition.

It is very interesting to see that women take the loss of their mothers extremely hard. In all cases they lived together and the daughters were there until their mothers' last minute. The loss of their mothers really left these ladies in very bad shape. Physically as well as emotionally. I really felt sorry for them. Actually, I feel sorry for everybody in that room.

We are not there to socialize, we are there because we all need help and understanding and an understanding ear. We tell things that we don't tell our relatives, family members and friends.

We talked and talked, exchanged experiences and came to the conclusion that we all have a lot in common.

We all loved the person we lost and we all find it difficult to go on with life without that person. We all agreed that life goes on one day at a time. No long range plans because nobody have any idea how life will turn out.

So for the time being just put one foot forward before the other.