Grief & Gratitude: allowing both to help us heal through profound loss

By Teresa Haney

This was NOT the plan.

To have lost my mother to cancer months after my college graduation and then become a widow at 45. None of us know our life's plan truly or when ours or someone we love's time is up. We can write up the plan, post it on our refrigerator and pray for it all to come to fruition, but ultimately life will throw us curve balls and sucker punches. It's what we do with those and how we overcome them that makes our lives richer, more meaningful and at times seem heroic to others.

Often I think to myself, "What would Mom do?" or "What would John do?" kind of like that well known phrase "What would Jesus do (WWJD)?". Both my late husband, John, and my mom were faith-filled, incredibly compassionate people. Anyone that knew them is incredibly blessed to have had them in their lives. To write about them or have my writing inspired by them seems natural and what I am meant to do...to share with the world stories of their strength, compassion and love.

This book's mission is to inspire in a small daily way. To share one person's experience of living through grief while striving to maintain a gratitude attitude and live with grace; as my mother did. My hope is this helps others see the depth of pain grief can have but that at the same time, gratitude can play a role - in helping move through the grief, helping life continue on and helping us carry all that love in our hearts, honoring that lost loved one in the best way we possibly can.

Grief lasts forever, but we can live it finding pockets of gratitude to cherish and hold tight. And then one day, we realize we're living with more light than dark and the grief really is just all that love we have for that person.
There IS light after dark. Always.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FY39D13H
• ISBN13: 9798271939518
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 76 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"