Giving a Voice to Sorrow Personal Responses to Death and Mourning

by Zeitlin, Steven J.; Harlow, Ilana

• ISBN13: 9780399527173
• ISBN10: 0399527176
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: Perigee Trade

Summary

A compassionate and supportive guide to bereavement takes a close-up look at the creative ways in which individuals and groups confront the grieving process, celebrate the lives and memories of those who have died, and find a balance between remembrance and letting go. Original.

Author Biography

Steve Zeitlin is the director and cofounder of City Lore, a cultural center in New York. A popular public speaker, he has served as a commentator on National Public Radio, and is the author of Because God Loves Stories: An Anthology of Jewish Storytelling, and numerous other books on America’s folk culture.
Ilana Harlow holds a doctorate in Folklore from Indiana University where she wrote a dissertation on traditional Irish narrative. For six years she served as the Folk Arts Program Director at Queens Council on the Arts. She has curated a museum exhibit on the cultures of Queens cemeteries and is currently co-editing a book on death and humor in folklore and popular culture. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xv
Giving Shape to Sorrow	1	(21)
Jesse's Story	22	(38)
``Jesse, We Will Not Rush Grief''	28	(32)
Kristen Shantz
Dennis Cunningham
Storytelling	60	(47)
The Dying Tell Their Story, Too	61	(2)
The VA Troopers	63	(4)
Coming Home	64	(3)
Susan Perlstein
The Role of Hospice	67	(6)
``Here I Am, Here's What I Did''	69	(4)
Katherine Blossom
Living with Dying	73	(5)
Iolene's Soliloquy	74	(4)
Iolene Catalano
The Author of Myself	78	(1)
The Storytelling Wake	79	(5)
Death and Silence	84	(3)
``You Were Great''	84	(3)
Amanda Dargan
Death on the Range	87	(3)
Bones	88	(2)
Teresa Jordan
Story as Ritual	90	(3)
The Wishbone	91	(2)
Ron Landsman
Writing It Down	93	(2)
Dreams	95	(2)
Coincidence as Communication	97	(2)
Judithness	99	(2)
Michael and Margaret	101	(4)
``I'll Send You a Sign''	101	(4)
Michael Walsh
Trump Cards and Rainbows	105	(1)
Homo Narrans	106	(1)
Ritual and Ceremony	107	(54)
The Beau Geste	109	(3)
Stillborn	112	(3)
``We Had to Do Something for This Child''	112	(3)
Susan Knightly
The Feeling of Empty Hands	115	(1)
Designing Death	116	(1)
Liza's Story	117	(18)
``I Know How I Want to Die''	120	(15)
Elena Lister
The Last Passage	135	(7)
Until I Am One Hundred	136	(6)
Barbara Myerhoff
Home Altars	142	(2)
House of Cards	143	(1)
Marlene Lortev Terwilliger
A Prom and a Yearbook	144	(10)
``When This You See, Remember Me''	146	(8)
Lila Zeiger
Chronicle of a Death Foretold	154	(7)
Scatter My Ashes	155	(6)
Miguel Algarin
Commemorative Art	161	(54)
Creating a Place for the Dead	163	(8)
Crafting a Vessel for My Father	165	(6)
Peggy King-Jorde
Art at the End of Life	171	(4)
``I've Been a Good Life''	172	(3)
Jane Cameron
Legacies	175	(3)
Drawing Father	176	(2)
C Bangs
A Weekly Memorial	178	(3)
Music to Remember Him	178	(3)
Marjorie Eliot
Mourning Quilts	181	(8)
Portrait of a Personality	184	(2)
Sheryl Mullane-Corvi
Sacred Fabric	186	(3)
Kathleen Doyle
A Communal Casket Cover	189	(3)
Memorial Walls	192	(8)
``Common, Everyday People Who Were Loved''	195	(5)
Hector ``Nicer'' Nazario
Graven Images	200	(8)
The Permanent Side of the Bed	202	(6)
Paul Monette
Public Evidence of a Private Memory	208	(7)
One Hundred Smooth Stones for Grandfather	210	(5)
Arlan Huang
Notes	215