As I got older, the term “Good Grief” no longer was a term of exasperation like it was from Charlie Brown. In fact, I began to see it as an oxymoron. At the age of “13” I experienced the first death of a loved one, my great grandmother. I loved her very much and was extremely upset when she passed away. My parents did a wonderful job, talking with me about death, the love and loss I was feeling, and it was ok to be sad. As the years passed by, I continued to experience grief from the loss of more loved ones but also learned that there was also grief from the loss of relationships, the loss of pets, the ending of one stage of my life into another. Through all these types of grief however, I never once would have used the term “Good Grief”! For me there didn’t seem to be anything “good” about it!

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