May is a tricky month for grief and me. My mom died in 2007. May was her birth month. It’s also Mother’s Day. And my maternal grandmother, Grandma Becky, died in May two years before my mom did. So every year, May arrives and it’s not just spring. It’s like a carnival funhouse, laughter around…
I still feel every pet I’ve ever lost in my heart, and I still grieve each one. Thunder was the first. She was all black with a white spot on her belly, and I loved her fiercely. She was the first pet that chose me as her own, and she died when I was nine….
Here’s something you might need to hear today: love and rage can coexist.
You can show up with tenderness and still want to scream in your car afterward. You can be devoted and still feel trapped. You can be doing your best and still be angry that this is your life right now.
That doesn’t make you a bad caregiver. It makes you a caregiver who’s telling the truth.
Talking about sex, touch, and intimacy after loss Grief and sex. Two things we’re trained to talk about in whispers, if we’re allowed to talk about them at all. But here’s the inconvenient truth: they’re tangled together. Not because grief is “romantic,” and not because sex is some kind of cure. They’re linked because both…
This season, you are not failing the holidays because you can’t manufacture cheer on command. In this piece, we explore why grief can feel so sharp in November and December, how to set boundaries with people who “just want you to be happy,” and simple rituals and resources to help you build a holiday that honors your loss instead of erasing it.
Grief after suicide is heavy and complicated. Tonight’s Death Circle with Pollinate Hive House is a low-pressure space: come to listen, sit quietly, or share if you wish. No requirements. Just a safe, loving room, steady facilitation, and community care. Details and RSVP inside.
I’m Erika Hall. I do my work where culture looks away. I am a Taboo Doula My passions live where culture looks away…death and sex. I created the Taboo Doula path to bring them back into honest light. End-of-life support and embodiment belong together here, alongside open and honest talk about consent, kink, aftercare, safety,…
I’m joining Pollinate Hive House, an inclusive neighborhood home for care. First up: a Death Circle with Charlotte’s Door for suicide-loss survivors on Nov 7 at 6 pm CT.
One of the hardest truths of end of life, illness, or psychological struggle is the circle of “burden.” A diagnosis, cancer, dementia, or something rare and hard to explain, often comes with a shadow that has nothing to do with the illness itself. That shadow whispers: I am a burden. Even without a dramatic diagnosis,…
By Erika Hall, Death DoulaA reflection on acceptance, presence, and the freedom to feel 🌙 Introduction We talk a lot about grief and dying—but we don’t always talk about the rules we silently place on them. There are expectations. Unspoken checklists. Timelines and tones that we believe should be followed. We measure whether someone is…