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In Memoriam 2024: Grieving Loved Ones & Public Figures
End-of-year remembrance of those who passed
There is a Winnie-the-Pooh illustration with a quote written by A.A. Milne that I keep on my desktop. It shows Winnie-the-Pooh walking with Piglet and Winnie says,
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
This is a touching reminder of the power of love and the fragility of relationships.
Last year in 2023, I suffered a big loss in my family. As a way to heal, I decided to write a Medium article about what I was feeling. Little did I know when I wrote the Medium article in December 2023, that I would suffer an even greater loss during 2024.
As an academic, my area of expertise is in biology and the physical world. When it comes to matters of emotions and the heart, I seek guidance from experts trained in psychology. I was fortunate enough to have an extraordinary colleague I could reach out to who was an authority on bereavement, Professor Ron Barrett, PhD.
Dr. Barret was a person I had grown to rely on. Each semester while teaching Contemporary Health and Diseases I made sure to ask Dr. Barret to be a guest speaker during the fifth week of my course to discuss grief. He was the…
