Good Grief

Description

Grief doesn’t knock. It kicks down your door. Good Grief is the story of Delores. Her regular training run in the snowy winter forest is interrupted by the memory of her daughter’s birth. She remembers and relives the moment of her birth, and as the hospital scene progresses, and as we see other memories we discover that her daughter has been stillborn. Delores can no longer keep running. She can not go on. She is alone in her moment of grief; alone in the forest. In the darkest moments of her life that she never even dreamt she would ever have to experience, can she find the will to carry on? Is there any reason at all to carry on?

1 in 250 births in the UK ends in a stillbirth. Good Grief takes a long hard look at stillbirth, and how parents struggle to come to terms with the death of their child. It looks at how memories play in our consciousness and can mix together. And it explores how some memories cannot, and should not, be categorised into either a ‘happy’ or a ‘sad’ pigeon hole. All lives are beautiful. And have meaning. However short.

Biblical Connection

This film was inspired by Psalm 139. It is for the mother Delores. “…Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” And for her daughter, Laurie. “…My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” The film also references Isaiah 40:31”. …but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”