Men want to take action in the face of grief.

Men want to take action in the face of grief.

In my grief work through hospice, over the years I have met many people, both men and women,who were looking for support to work through their grief. Generally I have found men want to take action and women want to talk to others to get through their grief after the death of a loved one.  I found activity or action help after the death of my wife.  Part of my action was designing this blog on men's grief. Works by Tom Golden, LCSW,  do an excellent job of helping people understand this difference between men's and women's grief, "Swallowed by a Snake" is one such book he wrote, others have followed.

About 4-5 years ago, one couple in their 60's  from our SE Indiana community experienced the death of their 39 year old son, "Wolfgrang" from cancer.  His mother pretty much tried to handle her grief through traditional ways usually associated with women's way of experiencing her loss.  After a year or so she reported she felt about the same as she did the day of his funeral.  The father of Wolfgang, needed to do something that involved an activity, taking some action.  After some time, he decided on what activity to undertake: to build a chapel for prayer open to the public. Over time he found a great degree of solace and comfort in his grief from building this chapel in their son's memory.  Below are pics of the chapel.















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