Rowleypark | 19 Apr 2010
yea i also had a healthy up bringing re death my farther has been in the state emergency service for all of my life, i also have been a member since i was 18 and have been to many fatal and non fatal road accidents. But when my best friend and soul mate was killed it was a different story completely and the grief has been the hardest thing i have had to push myself through. Haven’t watched the article yet but i’m about to for those that missed it here it is http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/551210 .
dionsmum | 19 Apr 2010
thanks for the link, many people think it is just the family who has to deal with road trauma, and fail to see the flow on effect of all road crashes. Not only the the immediate family, but the those who arrive at the scene to offer assistance, the ambos, firies, ses, police, major crash etc, the effect is enourmous. However that being said, the professionals that arrive at the scene, are trained and have access to some wonderful counselling services etc. The family however are left to go on, without their son, daughter, parent, many do not get adequate counselling, I have not recieved any counselling as such, I guess I count myself one of the lucky ones, in that I have been exposed to death most of my life, living next door to a funeral home helped that as I was growing up. I have learned a healthy respect for the process, and I have found over the years, that the subject of Death is a taboo topic, people don’t seem to want to discuss what will eventually come to all of us. I am fortuneate I have a strong faith if you would call it that, I do not believe that we are born, we live we die, and that is it. I know from my own personal experience there is something much bigger that we are all part of. So when it comes to the flow on effects of grief, I understand that well. Like my own Butterfly Effect so to speak, if I could go back to one particular moment in time, it would be to Sept 1996, do what I could to prevent the flow on effect from a crash that did not affect me directly, however the flow on from then could have prevented my loosing my nephew and my son.