Grief Project: 35 Songs for Mourning Your Child

The other night I was in a down mood.  My sadness had found me as I was cooking dinner before Nick got home.  I usually cook with music on so I decided to turn the song up.  It was a song I listened to when Nora was alive called, "The Big White Gate" by Grace Potter and The Nocturnals.  It's a song about being on your death bed and contemplating life here and after.  I love it.  It resonates with me.  So in that moment I turned it up and starting belting out tunes at the top of my lungs.

Now, if you know me, you would know I can't carry a tune to save my life.  I'm such a bad singer my mother even told me never to sing.  Now that's awful.  But with no one around and for the sake of my soul, I sang anyways.  I think no matter what our ability is to hit the right pitch or not, there is something releasing about singing.  Something, harmonious (and not just the notes) about music.  It's connection to the soul opens a special passage way to healing.

Music Therapy is a a clinical and evidenced-based practice of using musical intervention to attend to one's mental health.  The idea of using music to help the bereaved heal from grief is to help the bereaved person "tell and retell their story both as orators and listeners" Joy S. Berger states in her article Playing with Playlists in Techniques of Grief Therapy. Here she talks about how using musical playlists helps the bereaved continue to create bonds through music they associate with the deceased.  Ultimately, as Berger states, "orientating (the bereaved) to both loss and restoration." 

Inspired by Carly Marie's #CaptureYourGrief October photo a day challenge, Day 9 - Music, I created a play list of 35 songs bereaved mothers identified that reminds them of their children.  Even before creating this larger list, I had created my own that helped me get through grief after the death of Nora. The first 7 are from my playlist.  The rest I gathered from other bereaved moms.  I hope you enjoy it.  If you have a song to add, just leave it in a comment at the bottom of the post.  I would love to know about it.

35 Songs for Mourning Your Child

1. Stars by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
2. Halleluiah by The Coverband (Original version by Alexandra Burke)
3. Ave Maria by Beyonce 
4. A Mother's Prayer by Celine Dion
5. Just Give Me A Reason by Pink
6. Lullaby by The Dixie Chicks
7. I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables
8. See You Again By Carrie Underwood
9. Beautiful Boy by John Lennon 
10. Baby of Mine by Alison Krauss
11. Angel by Beverly Mitchell
12. Truly, Madly, Deeply, by Savage Garden
13. Fly by Celine Dion
14. Small Bump by Ed Sheeran
15. Holes by Passanger
16. In the Arms of an Angel by Sarah Mclachlan
17. Slipped Away by Avril Lavigne
18. Baby Blue by Dave Matthews Band
19. Sweet Baby James by James Taylor
20. I Will Cary You by Selah
21. Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel (IZ)
22. Home by Philip Phillips 
23. Who You'd Be Today by Kenny Chesney
24. Here Comes Goodbye by Rascal Flatts
25. I'll Be Missing You by Faith Evans & Puff Daddy
26. Far Away by Nickel Back
27. Let It Be by The Beattles
28. Real Love by Regina Spektor
29. I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie
30. Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton
31. Lullaby by Billy Joel
32. Gone Too Soon by Daughtry
33. Hey Ho by the Luminers
34. Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part by Ryan Adams
35. The Sun Goes Down, The Stars Come Out by The Wanted