Count your blessings: Don’s advice on mourning and grief

When Catherine Malatesta passed away at the age of 16, it struck her friends and family hard. She died from an aggressive form of cancer shortly after attending her prom.

The Boston Globe reports that today, in honor of her, Malatesta’s friends are all taking turns wearing her dress to their respective proms. They are calling it “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Prom Dress.”

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For KIRO Radio’s Don O’Neill, it brings to mind healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with grief and mourning.

“I have a friend who is going through a tough breakup and I was talking with him the other day,” Don recalled. “I’m like, ‘You’re going through what you’re going through and you got to go through it.'”

But Don advises that when you “go through it,” do it in a healthy way.

“If you run from it, you will still have to go through it some other way,” he said. “If you try pain medication, drugs alcohol, whatever, you are still going to have to go through it. Embrace it. Go through it. But at the same time, find perspective and think about things in your life where you have really felt loss before. Or where you have really felt pain. A lot of times that will give you perspective.”

“For me it was the death of my little sister,” Don said. “It’s probably the harshest thing that has happened to me in my life. But it gives me perspective on the other things I am going through. It makes you really thankful for what you do have.”

“They say you should count your blessings,” he said. “You really should.”

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