Write about Grief and Loss - Tuesday - Memories

Memories.

In grief, we are swamped with memories. Sometimes it can feel too much to remember everything about our loved ones and our time with them but, over time, memories can also become comforting - evidence that they lived and were loved and that they touched and shaped our lives.

When we have so many memories, it can be hard to know where to start but there’s a really simple writing tool for this called Free Writing. Free writing does what it is says on the tin. You forget about spelling or punctuation, about meaning and form and you just write what comes out. You try to keep the pen on the page and write without stopping or editing. The subconscious knows what it want it wants to write about and you’ll be amazed at what comes out.

Here are some of my blog posts about remembering:

https://griefwriting.blogspot.com/2016/04/i-want-to-remember-i-need-to-forget.html

https://griefwriting.blogspot.com/2016/04/day-21-i-remember.html

Try this

Use the opening phrase ‘I remember…’ and just keep writing. What do you remember about your loved one? About happy times or about their death and their loss. Don’t censor yourself. Just keep writing. If you get stuck, go back and write ‘I remember…’ again and go to another memory.

Phone into Paulette’s show and tell us about a special memory or send your writing to paulette.edwards@bbc.co.uk