Grief Art & Hope blog seeking memorial artwork/stories about your beloved pets

[Nancy Gershman]

I'm Nancy Gershman, Editor of the soon to launch Grief Art & Hope blog on The Open to Hope Foundation. I'm very interested in what kinds of memorial artwork (made by you, friends and relatives, or by an artist) has helped you face the death of your pet. For those of you who already do art-making as therapy, I'd love to hear what mediums are helping you feel joy again.

Please consider emailing your stories and/or artwork (captioned, with byline) for consideration to [e-mail]. We can already see by the responses how much this blog is filling a void for folks at all stages of grieving …

Warm regards,

Nancy Gershman
Editor, Grief Art & Hope Blog
OPEN TO HOPE FOUNDATION
[e-mail]
http://opentohope.com/network/grief-art-and-hope

[Julie Wiley]

Hi Nancy, When I lost my precious 14-year-old Sappy, a longhaired Chihuahua in 2003, I was devasted, as most pet parent are when the lose a precious animal companion. Some of the things that helped me heal were to create memory bracelets in honor of Sappy. The braceletes were all hand-beaded and included a little charm with a pawprint on it. I made tons of them and gave them away to people who attended our pet loss support group. Another thing that helped me was to create a scrapbook filled with photos of my boy. For weeks, I'd sit on the floor of my living room to work on pages that would tell of how much I loved and missed my little dog. These are very simple ways to help one heal, but they really do help. And, those bracelets became a very special memorial piece for many who lost their own furry friends. I hope this helps. Be blesssed, Julie.
P.S. I'm attaching a photo of my precious little Sappy! Isn't he adorable. :) I miss him so much.

[Nancy Gershman]

Julie, I would love to put your story up on our site. Can you send me a photo of the bracelet? It could even be a photo of somebody wearing the bracelet, as long as we can make out the carm with the pawprint. I need little Sappy's photo and the bracelet photo emailed to me in the highest resolution you have - like the original .jpg from your camera would be best. If you have a favorite page in your scrapbook, make a digital photo of that as well and email everything to me to [e-mail]. That would be fabulous! A great teaching moment!
N

[Julie Wiley]

Sounds like a plan. I will be sending you some pics next week. Thank you for ALL you do. Blessings, Julie.