Grief Support

Feb. 26, 2021 — Yesterday a Cardie called to say how much she appreciated our condolence cards, having just ordered more for 32 families she knows who have recently lost loved ones. :(

Here at the end of this week when our nation is grieving the milestone loss of a staggering number of fellow citizens, we could easily become numb to those numbers … were it not that each and every one of us has at some point felt the staggering pain of losing someone we love. This weekend, maybe find a few quiet minutes to call to mind those you know who are still really hurting from a loss, be it in the past year or decades ago. We will be adding two of the above card FREE with each order placed in the coming week: One to mail to someone who needs the love you tuck inside. Another for you to keep as a reminder that you are part of a community of kind Cardies who care deeply for others.

As with more and more of our card messages, the one above was written by one of our Cardies, Dr. Rachel Glik. “Grief and trauma can feel relentless,” the wise and compassionate psychologist reminds us. “May we all be there for one another, and see our days filled with blessings, even amidst the pain and tragedies.”

It was Retail Partner Gail Walker of Northwest Nazarene University Bookstore in Nampa, ID, who wrote the kind and tender message on this design. “I’m very familiar with grief,” Gail shared with us, “so I try to reach out to others going through it. We need to support each other on this road that is so difficult to walk.

“Grief changes us,” Gail says. “There’s a ‘new normal,’ and it can be hell getting there. Society tells us that we should put a time limit on our grief,” she believes, “but, in reality, grieving never really ends because love doesn’t. The anniversary of a death can be an especially tough time for some people, and it’s important to let people know that we’re remembering with them.”

After ordering 30 of this design at one time, Cardie Betty Farr touchingly explained, “When those I know lose a loved one, I always send the family a copy of a book someone sent me when my husband passed away years ago: My Beautiful Broken Shell by Carol Hamblet Adams. With it, I include a bookmark that reads, ‘I thank my God every time I remember you.’ -Philippians 1:3 and I needed a card in which to write and suggest the families put a picture of their loved one in the bookmark. Now I’ve found the most perfect card.”

“I have had several recipients of the Passages condolence card I sent them tell me they’ve saved it in their bedside table, their Bible or their purse,” said Cardie Ann John, “just so it’s handy when they need to see it again.” And from Cardie Margaret Burke, “Two years ago this month, my mother died. One of her friends sent me your A Good Cry tissue box card. I have left it on my home office desk all this time as a reminder it’s ok to let the waves hit when they come to you.”

We’ve shared the following story in this Cardie Newsletter many times, and it feels like these times call for it again now: When Amy Beamer Murray first accepted our standing invitation to Introduce Yourself to our Cardie community, she mentioned that our original Cardinal card was one of her favorites. “The winter after my dad died,” Amy explained, “my backyard feeders were polluted with cardinals, and my sister told me something I’d never heard: to some, cardinals represent our loved ones who have passed.

“Ever since then, when someone loses a loved one,” Amy shared, “I send the Cardinal card about three months later as part of what I call ‘after care.’ After the funeral has long since passed, and the phone calls are fewer and farther between, and there hasn’t been a sign of a floral arrangement or casserole in weeks — but the burden of grief is still so heavy that you can physically feel it — that’s when I send the cardinal card.”

Amy’s compassion was so inspiring that we created a second version of the Cardinal, with grief support in mind this time. Let’s let them fly, Cardies, let them fly.