Letters To A Grieving Widow

by Danny Mize, Billie McElroy

Overview

This is the chronicle of a journey… a journey through the difficult country called grief and mourning. It is not a textbook on grief or widowhood. It is not a blueprint for “talking” someone through grief. It is a collection of correspondence between the authors – a grief support specialist and a grieving widow after the painful death of her husband of 39 years. Some of what you will read are essays and journal entries she wrote during her “dark days.” Some of the writings are in response to the pain she poured out on paper. You will read letters that Billie wrote to her husband, Jack, after his death, as well as her responses to some of Danny’s notes and letters to her. Neither had any idea that one day the correspondence might come together as a tool to help others find their way through the valley of mourning. Recent additions include inserted NOTE: sections containing grief lessons learned through many years of interaction with grieving individuals and families.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014048453
Publisher:	Danny Mize
Publication date:	02/09/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	188 KB

About the Author

DANNY MIZE is a chaplain, educator, bereavement facilitator, and minister. He was the co-founder and Executive Director of The Kids’ Place, a support group program for grieving children and their families established in central Oklahoma after the 1995 Murrah Building bombing. He is currently the coordinator of bereavement services and a chaplain for Hospice Care of the Southwest in Amarillo, Texas.

Danny earned his MA in Religion from Pepperdine University and MRE from Abilene Christian University. He is certified as a Bereavement Group Facilitator (Levels I & II) by the American Academy of Bereavement. He studied under Dr. Alan Wolfelt at the Center For Loss & Life Transition in 1995. Danny also completed training offered by the Dougy Center For Grieving Children from Portland, Oregon. In 1998, he was a panelist on the National Teleconference For Parental Loss, broadcast to over 500 locations in the USA and Canada. He served as a staff member of Doug Manning’s In-Sight Institute “The Power Of Presence” seminars in the Oklahoma City area. Mize co-authored the chapter, Ongoing, Long-Term Grief Support Groups for Traumatized Families in the book Mass Trauma and Violence: Helping Families and Children Cope, edited by Nancy Boyd Webb.
His participation in crisis and grief support efforts following the April 19, 1995, bombing in Oklahoma City led to his full-time work with The Kids’ Place. He was also active in providing materials and support to leaders of children’s grief programs in the northeast in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, tragedies. He has consulted with and encouraged dozens of established grief programs.

BILLIE McELROY retired as an Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Oklahoma City University. She earned her Doctorate of Education from Oklahoma State University. She has been a public school teacher, reading consultant, curriculum coordinator, and principal of elementary and secondary schools. Over the years, she also devoted much time and energy to teaching children in churches.

Billie enjoys speaking to grief groups in churches, sharing her personal grief experiences with those who seek her help. She counseled children in the aftermath of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Jack, Billie’s husband of thirty-nine years, died in 1990. Their three children and many grandchildren live in Oklahoma.