As one of the first two hundred female rabbis in the world, I specialized in spiritual care for hospice patients and their families of all religions or none. During the years of my career, which spanned 2005 through 2020, my hospice career memoir, Encountering The Edge: What People Told Me Before They Died (Pen-L Publishing) was published in 2014. I began my blog Offbeatcompassion.com in 2013 and it includes such issues as unacknowledged grief, COVID-19 sermons, why evil exists (that's a popular post!), and fear of death. Currently I edit my husband's newsletter for his business True Contrarian Investments and keep his clients involved.
Prolonged grief disorder is now in the DSM. Does this codify mourning, push people to “get over it,” or help treat true illness?
The result is a moving and beautiful account of what it means to listen, love, live, and die.
Each culture has its strengths and weaknesses as to what parts of grief they facilitate, or hinder.