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    The Butterfly Grief Group: A Short Story
    The Butterfly Grief Group: A Short Story
    The Butterfly Grief Group: A Short Story
    Ebook68 pages1 hour

    The Butterfly Grief Group: A Short Story

    By Melanie Schatzel, M.Ed.

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    About this ebook

    Creative Short Story Writer, Melanie Schatzel, M.Ed. in "The Butterfly Grief Group: A Short Story" has once again visited death, grief, sadness, and hope but in a new light that will cause readers to laugh, cry, and sigh.

    The short story begins after the funeral services of a younger sister of a known author who has suffered from writer's block since the doctors announced that the final days are near. During the last few weeks, the sister who has experienced a lifetime of challenges to include abuse, rape, and addictions, prepares three items to be delivered to her sister--the author--at her passing. The first item is an engraved leather-bound journal. The second is an invitation to The Butterfly-Grief Group where she has already applied for her sister to attend and completed the referral process along with securing a promise that the sister--the author--will attend. And the third, is a therapy horse named Hope.

    Each day is a journal entry. Each numbered. And each includes a brief description of the day's activities and the sister's mourning as she prepares for and attends a session with The Butterfly Grief Group. The first day she introduces the facilitator, Lemon Meringue, whom she nicknames because of her physical characteristics and a distant childhood memory. In this first day's journal entry, she has already missed the first few sessions of the group. She is immediately treated differently by the others because of her absences: this becomes a challenge as she attends, and because of it, the expectations from the group are different for her until they begin to accept her. But in the time it takes for to be accepted by others, she realizes that she is only attending to keep a promise made to her deceased sister. And while she attends, she delves more and more into her mourning the loss of her sister, their relationship, and her life now without her sister. She also explores her life as it begins to begin again.

    The story is set in a small town where she has been hiding away partly because of her passion and career in writing. It follows the challenges and triumphs of the deceased sister as her gifts force the author to accept her grief, and traits about herself that she has ignored. It is a beautifully insightful story about beliefs, hope, faith, and grief told in a way that involves the reader as if they are the deceased sister and the author is merely building their relationship one grief session at a time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateMar 24, 2024
    ISBN9781304526977
    The Butterfly Grief Group: A Short Story

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      The Butterfly Grief Group - Melanie Schatzel, M.Ed.

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