A Celebration of Life

Sarah O'Connor
15 Mar, 2010 04:00 AM

A LOCAL mother is using her experience of grief to help others.
Aileen Wait has created a 'grief journal' with the help of friend Lea McDonald, which contains blank pages for messages as well as helpful hints, recommended books and websites, poems and quotes.
"The journal will gradually evolve over time and become a treasured keepsake for many years to come," Aileen said.
Almost six years ago, Aileen lost her 23-year-old daughter Zoe to leukaemia and nine months later, her father died.
Aileen said she found it difficult to deal with losing her loved ones and began "looking for answers" through books, quotes and poems relating to grief.
On the first anniversary of Zoe's death, Aileen was given a journal and the idea to create 'Beyond Words: A Celebration Of Life' was inspired.
"I was having a little bit of a difficult time remembering good times because of what Zoe had to go through with her treatment," Aileen said.
"For Zoe's first anniversary Lea gave me a journal to write in, but because I was completely blocked by the traumatic memories of Zoe's battle with leukaemia I couldn't manage to pen one happy memory.
"I told Lea that what I needed was for others to share their memories of Zoe and that's when the idea for this special project was born."
For more of this story see Monday's edition of The Guardian (March 15, 2010).


http://www.theguardian.com.au/news/local/news/general/a-celebration-of-life/1775033.aspx