We’re beginning to understand the sudden ‘grief attacks’ that hit mourners A few years ago, psychologist Sherman Lee experienced a “grief attack”. When he set out to study them, he discovered just how powerful and all-consuming grief can be. Grief profoundly affects the body and mind. Once, while driving his car, Sherman Lee started sobbing..
Anne: her quirkiness was next to godliness Anne was indeed a character! She practically memorized all the novels of Jane Austen, having devoured them, like she came to gobble hospital meatloaf, dozens of times per year. In fact, Anne also memorized huge chunks of poetry and prose in the course of her lifetime, including “The..
Anne wore moccasins and tiptoed toward eternity Stricken with the storm no hands could lift, Anne moved softly through the narrowing room of days. Brain cancer dimmed the lamps one by one, yet still she wore her beloved moccasins, as if the earth itself might remember her feet. She tiptoed toward eternity without fanfare, past..
Expiring like a quivering, vulnerable bird in the dawn’s grey I have become obsessed with how Anne died, three months ago, quivering, vulnerable, like a stricken bird. This little poem is intended to honour her. It is presented on a Haiga background. https://www.graceguts.com/haiga I find it soothing and therapeutic to concoct these..
Geno Lewis: Scoring a touchdown for compassion (revisited) https://www.cfl.ca/2026/08/02/redblacks-release-receiver-eugene-lewis/ Responding to the above press release of August 2, 2026 A letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper The Ottawa Redblacks have certainly been experiencing a miserable season on the gridiron, but they’ve scored big points in so many other ways. My..
Facing the yawning abyss of solitude in the fall of my life It was a beautiful fall day in early October, 2023, when Anne and I were still living in Dijon, France. We were heading for Mâcon for a day trip, on a local train destined for Lyon. The train was an old..
The unrelenting brutality of grief and the pervasive pall of mourning The verse that emerges in these clumsy attempts at Haiga creation is often bleak, reflecting the unrelenting brutality of grief and the pervasive pall of mourning. Haiga is a Japanese concept describing a refined visual art of combining brush painting, Haiku,and calligraphy. A traditional..
Unhappy Campers Revisited For many more pictures, please click here: https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/unhappy-campers/ It was the summer of 1980. Anne and I were spending our holidays in Vancouver with her family. We were child free. When fall approached, we settled on a novel way to return to our home in Quebec City, opting..
Glioblastoma Awareness Day: July 15, 2026 Today is Glioblastoma Awareness Day intended to raise awareness of glioblastoma (GBM), one of the most complex, deadly, and treatment-resistant cancers. As many of you know, I lost my sweet, courageous partner, Anne Schlenker McBryde, to this scourge on May 3, 2026, after a year-long battle with the..
Ephemeral Mist: We Exist Then Disappear Haiga is a Japanese concept describing a refined visual art of combining brush painting, Haiku (or sometimes Tanka, as here), and calligraphy. A traditional Haiga requires all three of these elements. Like the poetic form it accompanies, Haiga is based on simple, yet often what one hopes are profound,..