Grief Information and Monthly & Holiday Grief Support Letter

This is a short list of basic yet effective ways of of coping with grief. Compiled by people who grieve, this list helped them manage their grief journey.  

Many grieving people experience the "I wonder if I'm going crazy" feeling when they are grieving. This page links to several articles, including: Grief Basics; First Steps forward in Grief; Grief Process: How we Grieve;  Characteristics of Grief: How Grief Affects me and What it Looks Like. Each of these articles helps normalize grief, alleviate worries about "doing grief right," and offers support to you doing your grieving time.  

Journeying through grief is more tough than anyone who is not grieving will ever know. It takes time and effort, support and understanding. The road through grief is difficult to travel alone. 

  Family and friends need a working knowledge of grief to best support a grieving person. 

No one really knows exactly what to say or do to support someone they know who has experienced the death of a loved one.  Most people want to help but feel under-tooled. Many of us worry: What if I say or do the wrong thing? Here are tips from people who grieve about what works and what doesn't.  

Beginning the first month after the death of a loved one and extending for a year and a half, these letters provide warm, faith-based grief support.  Monthly Grief Support Letters One through Eight are here.  Each letter has link to attachments, and most have a grief-related reflection.  

Feel free to pass these letters on to anyone who might benefit.  

Special days, anniversaries, and holidays are especially difficult during grief. Most people need extra support on or just before these days. Letters included here are: One Year Death Anniversary, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Mothers Day/Fathers Day, and many other holidays/special days. 

Feel free to pass these letters on to anyone who might benefit.

Saint Thomas Aquinas was keenly aware of the sorrows of life—of the burdens of living in a broken world. 

Not infrequently in his writings, he expresses concern about the weight of grief and sorrow in our lives. This is a practical guide to effective self-care during grief.

Here are additional grief-related resources and books for adults and children. 

  Is gratitude limited to something good happening, or is it more than that? Could it also be a choice, made in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health? Can I choose gratitude, during grief? If so, how? Will it help me heal?