Don't Let Them Tell You How To Grieve: Bereavement: Lines to let you know you are not alone. This item is unavailable.Don't Let Them Tell You How To Grieve: Bereavement: Lines to let you know you are not alone

In 1987 my elder daughter, Nikki, aged 19, took her own life. Just over a year later, my husband left. For a marriage to survive the death of a child is hard enough; it is less likely to survive if that death is a suicide. When he left, out of the blue, it felt like another bereavement. During the next three years I had even more adjustments to make; my son left home to go to university, I had to train to become a teacher as I now had to earn my own living, my younger daughter left home, and finally, I had to sell the house and find somewhere else to live. Then in 2003, Robin, aged 32, my son and close friend after all we had been through, fell ill in Singapore and died suddenly a few days later, of encephalitis. We were all devastated. I had lost two of my three children and my younger daughter, Rachael, had lost both her siblings. It was during the two years after Robin?s death that I wrote these poems. I could not have written them if I had not already gone through the grief of Nikki?s death. This time, although it was just as painful, I was able to observe and identify my thoughts and feelings. The poems helped me not only to come to terms with my own grief, but to create something positive out of the lives and deaths of my two children.

Gina Claye's poems explore the emotions experienced by those who grieve. Bereavement can leave people feeling isolated. It takes courage to grieve and is an intensely person process. Sharing feelings through poetry brings some comfort knowing they are not alone with their painful and overwhelming emotions. Gina Claye is a retired teacher, living in the Chiltern hills. She has helped counsel parents who have lost a child, and advised hospital staff on the needs of those grieving, drawing on her personal experiences. She has appeared on television and radio. Her poems for children have been published in anthologies by Scholastic and Oxford University Press.