death of a child | Sheila Collins

Resting In Peace

by Sheila Collins | Nov 16, 2013 | Grieving, Story-telling

Last Saturday morning, while visiting the Bay Area, my husband and I were walking in a seaside park dedicated to the memory of the farm labor organizer, Cesar Chavez. As we walked the weather gave a clear demonstration of the micro-climates of the bay area; one...

Journey to a Shrinking Frontier

by Sheila Collins | Jun 18, 2013 | Environment, Grieving, Personal Stories

A trip to the Alaskan Glaciers is on many peoples’ bucket list of things to do before they die, and Rich and I were among that group. In 2009 we had a cruise to Alaska all planned and nearly paid for as a way to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. But 2009 was the...

Excerpt from “Warrior Mother”

by Sheila Collins | May 28, 2013 | Book Excerpts, Grieving, Health and Wellness, Past Events, Personal Stories, Publications, Rituals, Writing

People would often say to me, “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, children dying before their parents.” They said it when my thirty-one-year-old son, Kenneth, died of AIDS and again, seven years later, when my forty-two-year-old daughter, Corinne, died of breast...

Dancing With Death

by Sheila Collins | May 15, 2013 | Dances, Grieving

Death, grief and the end of life, have been major themes in my life recently. Last week a 23 year-old man collapsed at the Pittsburgh Marathon and became its first casualty. Friends and family were shocked, there had been no personal or family history to indicate his...

A Healing Ritual at Serpent Mound

by Sheila Collins | May 7, 2013 | Art & Life, Dances, Grieving, Songs, Spirtuality

It was a trek, as all spiritual journeys are, with five of us traveling six hours from Pittsburgh in my SUV. The Serpent Mound is in southern Ohio, not far from Cincinnati and my friend Vikki Hanchin’s recent book, The Seer and the Sayer...