This topic came about because of a Twitter suggestion of someone we should join others (Amber Jeffery from The Grief Gang Podcast) in following. The organisation is The New Normal Charity. We followed them, but then right away it got us thinking about ourselves and our situation.
We felt we wanted to do a topic on this. But then we thought why not go one step further and contact The New Normal Charity to find out if they would be interested in featuring in our topic. We were overjoyed and honoured when they said yes….
Please see New Normal and Grief: Guest Featuring The New Normal Charity which covers:
- Introduction
- Illustrative examples/ Quotes New Normal and Grief
- The New Normal Charity
- New Normal and Grief
- Useful links for Wills
- Our final thoughts/our YouTube video
© Copyright 2019 Grief Probate Journey Blog *PLEASE NOTE THIS INFORMATION IS SOURCED FROM UK and AMERICAN WEBSITES* It is also based on our own experience. *We are not experts in this field, we are speaking purely on our own experience with information sought from the internet to give further examples. *
1. Introduction
This topic came about because of a Twitter suggestion of someone we should join others (Amber Jeffery from The Grief Gang Podcast) in following. The organisation is The New Normal Charity. We followed them, but then right away it got us thinking about ourselves and our situation.
We felt we wanted to do a topic on this. But then we thought why not go one step further and contact The New Normal Charity to find out if they would be interested in featuring in our topic. We were overjoyed and honoured when they said yes.
Quite often in our blog, my sister and I talk about our “new normal” when we say this we mean the “new normal” we are trying to navigate in the four years since our Dad passed away.
Our reality is that we have faced many “new normal”. Our new normal started from the day our Dad was hospitalised in September 2016. From that day, little did we know that our life was to change forever and never be the same again.
Our Dad was diagnosed with Infective Endocarditis, this is something that our family had never heard of before (we have topics on Infective Endocarditis). Sadly because of this the bacteria went into his eyes which caused him to lose his sight, he became completely bed-bound, and he also contracted many infections as a result of his original diagnosis (we also have a topic on Infective Endocarditis and Blindness).
One of the things that sadly occurred fairly frequently is that our Dad would suffer from delirium. Again, this was a new experience for us as a family, something we’ve never encountered or had to deal with before.
My point in mentioning these things is that this was the start of a “new normal” for us. We had lost aspects of the Dad we had known our entire life. This was such a huge, massive and sad adjustment to have to come to terms with.
What was often our realisation was if this was how we felt, how did our Dad feel who this was happening to, he was having to live through all of this suffering. We cannot explain how sad, deflated, overwhelmed this made us feel.
And then our Dad passed away, wow, we were not prepared for this. What made matters even worse is the way in which we found out about it. It is something that as a family we will never forget. This was a ‘new normal’ we were not ready for. But that new normal was coroners, probate, inheritance tax, the complaint against the hospital that our Dad was an inpatient and much more.
Life for us over the past 5 years has felt like one big blur. Literally sometimes feeling like we don’t know how we’ve made it from one day to another. This has felt like what our daily life has become.
In 2020 my sister and I felt like we had reached a point of trying to take back some control and try to work on ourselves, try to get ourselves feeling like we were part of society, rather than co-existing alongside it. and then, something that the world didn’t see coming was the worldwide pandemic Coronavirus.
Wow, what a drastic “new normal” this has put on us and the world. This pandemic has been something that we didn’t envision we would ever live through or witness. The entire world coming to a standstill. It feels surreal, this is the sort of thing we learnt in history in school, we are now living through a major part of history. It is mind-blowing.
For all of these reasons, we wanted to do this as a topic.
Please see New Normal and Grief: Guest Featuring The New Normal Charity
2. Illustrative examples/ Quotes New Normal and Grief
3. The New Normal Charity
“The New Normal is a peer to peer support charity that connects people through their grief and mental health”.
Charity no. 1187513
Please see below for more information and resources from The New Normal Charity:
A short video about the background behind starting The New Normal here:
Our information pack is here:
“Our Instagram page @tnncharity is also a good way to find out information on the specific meetings we run”.
TNN Charity socials: https://linktr.ee/thenewnormalcharity
4. New Normal and Grief
4.1 The New Normal Charity (@tnncharity) | Twitter
“The New Normal is a peer to peer support charity that connects people through their grief and mental health. Charity no. 1187513. London, England”.
4.2 A New Normal | Psychology Today United Kingdom
“(6 Dec 2018) — In the early days of raw grief, those words can feel like your own death sentence. They can seem equally bleak in the dull ache of the months”…
4.3 The New Normal – KARLA HELBERT
“Often, bereaved people find that their grief can be misunderstood by others who have not experienced the same kind of loss or who have not yet faced the death”…
4.4 Grief: The New Normal – Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
“Free eBook! Grief has become the new normal. Chaplains deal with grief every day. We’ve pulled together a ton of resources to help. Download it for free”.
4.5 Will We Make Room for Grief in the “New Normal”?
“Each school has a different process for getting students onto their campus each morning. The middle school transports students in its traditional yellow buses”, …
4.6 A New Normal – Care for the Family
“With the untimely death of a partner, we are often immediately overwhelmed by shock and deep sadness, and then often numbness sets in, even if the death was”…
4.7 Living a New “Normal” With Grief | Love Lives On
“And I have accepted, much to what most who have placed their sympathetic hand on my shoulder, those who are also grieving, have said, that it will never, ever”…
4.8 The Post Pandemic ‘New Normal’ May Come with Grief
“(21 Apr 2021) — Key Takeaways. Life post-COVID can bring about feelings of grief. Whether you mourn the loss of a loved one during the pandemic or loss”…
5. Useful links for Wills
6. Our final thoughts/ our YouTube video
We are so pleased that Twitter made this connection suggestion. So much has come from that one suggestion. We are connected with another great organisation, we’ve had the pleasure and honour of sharing the work they do.
We are always thankful when we make new connections and can share collectively the ways in which we are all trying to get grief conversations going, and trying to help break down the grief taboo.
We hope this topic might be of use to those who read it.
Our YouTube video:
Grief Probate Journey 