Helping People Heal

I've blogged before about my relationship with obituaries, but last year I started wanting to write them. Months ago I launched a small business called Words of Remembrance. The website is still not up yet, but I will be writing pet obituaries and memorials on a regular basis. I have worked on two so far and it is an honor to be able to use words to comfort people who are hurting. I will post more about this initiative later this year. I intend to finish one for myself at some point too, as I have personally lost a pet, whom I raised from a kitten and died at 16 years old while in someone else's care while I was away.

In the last week, I've also started reading two books:

The Loss of a Pet: A Guide to Coping With the Grieving Process When a Pet Dies, by Wallace Sife

and

Afterglow (A Dog Memoir) by Eileen Myles

Two profoundly different books: in tone, in purpose, in voice. But both will help me help others better. I will also be finished with my training this fall in Pet Loss Bereavement. The most important thing, I think, to have for this work though is empathy, of which I have no shortage.