Author Ann Hood on the loss of her five-year-old daughter | My Take

When Providence-based and New York Times best-selling author Ann Hood lost her daughter two decades ago, the overwhelming grief took over her life. Ms. Hood gives us her take on coping with grief and how people can help someone going through such a devasting loss.
About My Take: Rhode Island PBS Weekly introduces viewers to some of New England’s most interesting people to get their take on everything from second chances to toy making. The segment is inspired by the PBS NewsHour Brief but Spectacular series.
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[@janetlouise]

Hi Ann - this is just wonderful advice. I think grief is too gentle a word. It should be call trauma. And that trauma is like carrying around a bookbag full of rocks. Some days you can't even get out of bed from the weight of it. Other days you feel a little stronger and can maybe go further but always it is there as much as your arm or your leg.

[@kellyamodeo214]

Hi Janetlouise, I think you are correct that it is trauma and I think that trauma is grief… I haven’t lost a child but I have… trauma. One of the most difficult parts about trauma is grieving, I think. I am 4/5ths through Ann’s book The Knitting Circle and it’s been helping me get out of my depression (from cptsd. The depression hit so hard a few weeks ago and I needed/need a distraction). Grief somehow does sound more gentle than trauma but trauma necessitates grief otherwise the trauma is internalized and we make sense of it in harmful ways.

[@findmeallways4422]

Thank you for sharing ❤

[@katharinavonheydekampf]

Thank you for sharing. I disagree with one thing. That time doesn"t help. Time, if you are willing, helps immensely. The pain is not even comparable to what it felt like years ago. Not even close.