Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Maureen – Holiday kindness and grief

Maureen discusses grieving during the holidays and being lifter up by kindness

Jeff K – “What is grief”

Jeff discusses the many aspects of grief and how we are all connected. Jeff continues to grieve the death of his mother.

Maureen – “Pregnancy and infant loss”

Maureen explains how pregnancy and infant loss is often misunderstood or underestimated.

Calls to Care, Calls to Action: Bearing Witness to Global Catastrophic Loss of Life and Traumatic Events

We bear witness to stories of mass loss of lives, stories of families in Gaza being forced from their land, loss of culture and traditions, and countless other ways systems of colonization and oppression can contribute to other non-death losses those who are directly affected currently and have historically faced. As we discussed in a previous article, we can also experience collective grief following natural disasters, accidents, international conflict, and acts of violence that have resulted in catastrophic loss of lives.

Janice – “Grief and the whole relationship”

Janice uses a personal story to talk about how loss can be related to the whole relationship not just the death.

Caileigh – Sharing grief experience to spread hope and kindness

Caileigh talks about taking the opportunity to share her personal and professional grief experiences as a way to spread hope and to spread kindness.

Shannon – Growing through Grief

Shannon discusses post traumatic growth and how it can be an expectation

Adrianna – Metabolizing grief

Adrianna explains metabolizing grief and grief literacy training

Chantal – Giving space

Chantal discusses how it is good and honouring to the one you’ve lost to give space and feel everything

Grief, Breastfeeding, and Care

In this essay, I share a bit about my story of grief and breastfeeding. I also share some thoughts about the cultural grief some people are carrying about the lack of support afforded to lactating families whose goal it is to feed their baby from their body. I use some gendered language throughout this essay…

Alongside

That is also our best, and only role, when supporting a person with a developmental disability to grieve. We must be the one that comes alongside. There is no closer place we can get to. We must be present, be with, perhaps not understanding or comprehending what the person we support is experiencing, but alongside them nonetheless. We must be there, ready to provide whatever we can discover of their unique need in grief.

Rev. Sky – “Why”

Rev. Sky talks about the question of why and how to look beyond it.