LEARNING TO LIVE WITH LOSSES

Punters and share market players are duly warned that the following do not concern them unless they have lost loved ones before.

There is one scene in Yasmin Ahmad's "Gubra" where Pak Atan's wife (Ida Nerina) told her husband that she will be very miserable when he dies. Pak Atan (Harith Iskandar) then told his wife that he hoped she will die first because he does not want her to suffer the misery of missing him.

We really do not know when or where we are going to die. There are exceptions of course. Saddam Hussien comes to mind. We know we will die eventually and the enlightened ones will prepare for the day (or night). What we are not prepared for is the sudden loss of a loved one. Even though we have heard of the Chinese saying that "the coffin does not discriminate the young and the old" we are still devastated when a loved one leave us. This is what happened to Ken Matthies.

I know Ken and his wife Marty, a couple from The Yukon, Canada, because they are regulars in my chat room "RoseGarden". About 4 odd years ago, the room was saddened by the news that Ken's daughter was killed in a helicopter crash. She was the pilot.
The tragedy hit Ken hard although we in the room had no inkling how hard it was. Ken sought help and Hospice Yukon brought him back to his feet. Out of his experience struggling with his loss and his grief, Ken wrote a book. You can get an excerpt of the book or you can order the whole book online. Turn up your sound when you visit the page. Listen to Ken speaking. Ken writes from the heart and what he wrote will touch yours.

Labels: Coping with Tragedies, online books.