Life: To Be Given Back Again to Whence It Came Confronting Grief Illiteracy Using a Personal Narrative Written in the Face of Grief

Abstract

The death of a loved one washes over us like a catastrophic tsunami, and grief consists of the waves and ripples that rise up and down, directing us through the murky waters of bereavement. When an individual journeys through these painful circumstances, grief alters our physical, emotional, psychological, behavioural, and spiritual wellbeing. And, although grief is a universal occurrence defined by evolving grief theory models, advancement in the design of innovative tools that target and teach us how to overcome our suffering has made slower progress, limiting the ways we put these grief models into practice. Similarly, a lack of grief education in schools, and our unwillingness to openly talk about death and discuss the impact of grief, hinder our ability to effectively transition beyond it. Hence, through the portrayal of a subjective experience when faced with a significant loss, this paper explores my own encounter with the chronic, complicated grief that materialized after the loss of my father. Examined against my cultural context as an Indo-Canadian, evocative autoethnography was used to delve into the human psyche, disclosing my personal interactions with grief, and exposing the grief illiteracy that exists in our society. Using the art of storytelling, my narration as the protagonist, hoping to reconcile with loss, was woven through a collection of 41 stories that took place before, during, and after the death of my father, shedding light on the cultural impact on bereavement. Through a targeted and extensive approach to the expressive writing technique, my findings aligned with previous studies that identified writing as a therapeutic tool, supporting the disclosure of past trauma as healing. Thus, this study determined that structured, first-person narrative writing was a successful tool used to recover from, reconcile with, and integrate the loss of my father. In addition, four cornerstones of storytelling emerged that were crucial to healing: relationship building, designing a blueprint of grief, strengthening spiritual health, and leaving a lasting footprint. Based on these findings, recommendations were made through a seven-day unit plan that supports the inclusion of grief work in the classroom, addressing the needs of the grieving population in schools.