This Thanksgiving I’m grateful for grief. That statement is going to make family members scratch their heads when we celebrate the holiday together and I announce that this Thanksgiving I’m grateful for grief. Chances are, those words are making you, as a family caregiver well acquainted with grief, scratch your head as well.

Five years ago, grief wouldn’t have topped my thankfulness list. Not because I lacked experience with grief…

…starting as a child in a home where caring for an ill father was our family’s chief concern,

…then as young parent caring for a medically fragile baby,

…and finally, as one of three adult children managing our mother’s care as her health failed.

During those days of constant caregiving, grief was my frequent companion. I had little time or energy to address it. Only now, with both my parents released from long suffering and our son an independent adult, have I been able to reflect upon my grief. What I have discovered in the process is yielding a cornucopia of blessings that explain why this Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for grief. I’d like to share just 3 of them with you.

1. My dad lived with multiple sclerosis for 38 years. For 24 of them he lived in the home where my siblings and I were raised. When his needs grew too much for Mom to handle, he resided in a long-term care facility for 14 years. Every day he lost something to his terrible disease. Dad could have complained about what he could no longer do. Instead, he joked about his fumbling fingers. He grinned wide at visitors and caregivers when he couldn’t remember their names.

To read the rest of This Thanksgiving I’m grateful for Grief, visit the Hope Anew website.

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Photo by Mon Esprit on Unsplash