Loss + Grieving = Healing by Syreeta Talbert
On August 29, 2017, while celebrating with family my father’s 75th birthday, my son, unbeknownst to him, was being lured into a remote area in the farthest suburb of Chicago and shot to death. He wasn’t in a gang, he didn’t know his victims. He was simply targeted, set up and killed. He was 3 months shy of graduating with his BA in Audio Engineering and Recording. Unfortunately, I wasn’t new to this type of traumatic loss. 20 years earlier, I lost a brother, the same way. Talk about losses of great magnitude. I knew immediately that I needed to get into grief counseling before I lost my mind and sense of being. I questioned myself constantly, as to why I wasn’t grieving the way I was “accustomed” to seeing those on television grieve. Once I started grief counseling I learned everyone grieves differently; some quietly, some become despondent, many don’t even know how, so for me, I wanted to learn how to grieve healthy. In my grieving and healing process, I’ve learned I grieve out l