Death and Grief During a Pandemic

Jane – Sitting in our feelings

Jane – Sitting in our feelings

Jane shares how she has learned to be more present in her feelings while grieving during the pandemic.

Weathering the Intense Emotions of Grief

Grief often comes with powerful, unpredictable emotional shifts that can be painful to experience. While it’s important to find ways to sit with these feelings, to acknowledge the pain of grief and accept loss, it’s also necessary to find ways to ease and manage the pain. There are several simple activities that you can explore to help.

Karyn and Aidan – Support.

Karyn and Aidan discuss how much the support they received helped

Jane – Connection, place, and grief

Jane talks about the difference between living alone in Toronto while grieving during the pandemic compared to her experience once she moved closer to her family in Northumberland.

Karyn and Aidan – Planning a celebration of life during COVID

Karyn and Aidan discuss creating a celebrating of life during the pandemic

Maureen – “Not being able to be with your loved one”

Maureen discusses ideas of how you can honour a loved now until it is safe to come together.

Learning from Grief

Grief is weird. Odd start, I know, but that was the sentence I used a lot whenever someone asked me how I was. It was never a constant feeling; it changed day to day. And still does. It’s the full gambit of emotions from sadness to anger to guilt and, though dark, even humour found its way in.

Maureen – Isolated in a nursing home

Maureen talks about her father-in-law isolated and palliative during the pandemic

Karyn and Aidan – The what if game and guilt

Karyn and Aidan explain how they have dealt with guilt

The Reflection Room® project: How storytelling supports processing grief

The Reflection Room project is an evidence-based participatory art installation that was developed by researchers at the SE Research Centre and Memorial University in 2016. The project included a research component that evaluated the impact of Reflection Rooms as the project adapted over time to address changing needs.

Lynda – “Old age home and guilt”

Lynda discusses how hard it is during the pandemic to have a loved on in an old age home