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Five stages of death
Recently I wrote an article called “Grief changes everything”.
This morning I was reading through my notes and getting rid of things that are old and outdated. I ran across the Five stages of death note. I think that it is important to know these things. I can attest to the fact that when we lost our daughter to cancer 21 years ago I certainly hit all of these.
Denial- when your loved one dies, especially if you are very close to them, your first reaction is that of denial. You find yourself in a surreal setting where things slow down. You just cannot believe this is happening to you or them. In your minds eye you think that this is a bad dream and that you will wake up and everything will be as it was before they died.
Anger — Once you realize that you are not in a bad dream and the death is a reality you become angry. You are angry that you are experiencing excruciating emotional pain over the loss. You are angry about the circumstances that are caused by your loss. You are angry about having to make changes in your life to accommodate your loss. You are sometimes angry at other loved ones because you feel that they should have responded in some other way.
Bargaining — This emotion actually happened with me in the days before my daughter died. I bargained with God to take me instead and to leave my precious child to live her…
