Tag: grief

Death is a Comma

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 7, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, LOVE. 9 Comments on Death is a Comma

When you lose someone you love, it frightens you. Not just for the loss of them. Your grief opens up the possibility that you will lose everyone you love. But if everything is process, nothing is broken, and maybe nothing needs to be fixed. Rachel Naomi Remen We humans give tiers to love. Those that are more important, and even most important....

In Mississippi, We Pull Over

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 14, 2018. Posted in General, GRIEF. 2 Comments on In Mississippi, We Pull Over

For all its fun and foolishness, TRACKING HAPPINESS: A SOUTHERN CHICKEN ADVENTURE is a story of a young woman coping with grief. Lucinda Mae’s dad died two years before the novel opens. Losing her dad threw Lucinda’s life off track, as it were, and the cross-country train trip hopefully will set it to rights. As I’ve shared...

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 2, 2016. Posted in GRIEF. 2 Comments on Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

I very much appreciate EAP:The Magazine publishing my essay “Grief: What’s the Best I Can Do?” I really like this magazine. Full of good writers, talking about interesting, important stuff. Mosey around and peruse some of the content when you click through to read my essay. 🙂 Grief: What’s the Best I Can Do?

Grief: The Best I Can Do

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 26, 2015. Posted in GRIEF, LOVE, Writing. 32 Comments on Grief: The Best I Can Do

My Daddy Joe was killed by a train when I was three years old. My older sister was four, and my mother was newly pregnant with my little sister. After the baby was born, my mother had what we would now call postpartum depression, complicated, of course, by the death. She thought to herself, Well, I’ve had this baby. The two older girls can take...

Here’s the Kicker

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 27, 2015. Posted in GRIEF. 12 Comments on Here’s the Kicker

A daughter orphaned from her dad at age three, I wrapped myself in all things Daddy Joe. Because he moved to the Rockies, I loved the snow, demanded a Frosty the Snowman cake every December birthday, cherished my red sled—in Mississippi, where it snowed once every seven years. I folded and unfolded the postcard he sent me of a Palomino until...

Train of Thought

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 22, 2014. Posted in General. No Comments on Train of Thought

The train whistles in the distance. Slanting sunlight filters through the living room window—the train, which arrives and departs Memphis morning and night in the darkness, is late. Seated on the floor, I rub the dog’s belly and confide, “I love the train.” How I can love the instrument of my daddy’s death is beyond me....

The Cha-Cha: 1 step back for 2 steps forward

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on September 19, 2013. Posted in General. No Comments on The Cha-Cha: 1 step back for 2 steps forward

We are in a re-beginning. The roll-out of stories, interrupted by my daddy’s death and the grief that followed, is re-starting. To get back in the groove, we’re re-turning to the last aired story, “A Trip to the Lawyer.” It’s one of the shortest, 8 or so minutes. That’s a good thing when you’re re-warming...

Angels on the Train

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 23, 2013. Posted in General. 3 Comments on Angels on the Train

We were many. An overflowing, summer-stuffed, unpracticed group. Even those of us who weren’t novice train-goers were intimidated by the crowd, made nervous by the excess: would I really have a seat? He was kind, the conductor who did not view his job as an opportunity to inflict minor cruelty on those more ignorant—and dependent—than he....

Not Feeling Smiling or Friendly

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 21, 2013. Posted in General. 2 Comments on Not Feeling Smiling or Friendly

Exiting the Office Depot, I saw a sign: “Now Hiring Smiling, Friendly People.” I wondered if I would pass the “Smiling, Friendly” test. I debated this on my way to the car. Talking out loud, to myself. “You flunk!” my examiner shouted. “Smiling, friendly people don’t talk to themselves. They have...