Grief Resources
Daughter's Grief
The following can help with a daughter's grief:
- A Good Enough Daughter
By Alix Kates Shulman (1999). A memoir focusing on the author's relation to her family, framed by her return home in the last years of her parents' lives, where she makes important discoveries (especially from her mother's writings). Offers an account of their lives and her brother's, including his fight with and eventual death from cancer. Schocken.
- A Mother Loss Workbook: Healing Exercises for Daughters
By Diane Hambrook & Gail Eisenberg (1999)
- Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss
By Hope Edelman (1994). Explores the many and often complex emotions a woman experiences when a mother dies. From a linear experience to an emotional understanding, this book can help unravel difficult feelings.
- Remembering Mother, Finding Myself: A Journey of Love and Self-Acceptance
By Patricia Commins (1999)
- You Are So Beautiful Without Your Hair: A Daughter's Journey With the Death of Her Parents
By Suzanne Piela (2000). Written by a former nurse about her experience with the deaths of her parents, who succumbed to cancer within a year of each other. Bluestar.
Children’s Grief
Camp Healing Tree
A two-night summer camp experience for young people between the ages of 7 and 17 who have lost a loved one through death. For more information about Camp Healing Tree, please visit www.camphealingtree.org.
Loss of a Grandparent
The following can help with the loss of a grandparent:
- Finding Grandpa Everywhere: A Young Child Discovers Memories of a Grandparent
By John Hodge (1998).
- Grandpa Loved
By Josephine Nobisso (1989). Boy remembers his grandfather who has died, not with sadness, but with the kind of love and joy his grandpa brought to life. Gingerbread House.
- Grandma's Scrapbook
By Josephine Nobisso (1990). A beloved picture book that may help you in your bereavement work. This book has helped countless people – adults as well as children – find comfort, grace, and hope in the face of every kind of loss. Gingerbread House.
- Relative Grief: Parents and Children, Sisters and Brothers, Husbands, Wives and Partners, Grandparents and Grandchildren Talk About Their Experience of Death and Grieving
Edited by Judy Merry & Clare Jenkins (2005)
Loss of a Parent
The following can help with the loss of a parent:
- A Music I No Longer Heard: The Early Death of a Parent
By Leslie Simon & Jan Johnson Drantell (1998). Oral history from people age 19 to 87 who have in common with each other and with the authors the loss of a parent at an early age. Reflections on the ways the interviewees (and the authors) have recognized and dealt with the effects of their loss. Simon and Schuster.
- And When Did You Last See Your Father?: A Son’s Memoir of Love and Loss
By Blake Morrison (1997)
- Children and Grief: When a Parent Dies
By J. William Worden (1996)
- The Loss That Is Forever: The Lifelong Impact of Early Death of Mother or Father
By Maxine Harris (1994). Interviews with 65 people…explores & explains the effects of early parental loss.
- How It Feels When A Parent Dies
By Jill Kremetz (1988). Eighteen children, different races, ages 7-17 speak openly and honestly of their experiences with a parent’sl death.
- Recovering from the Loss of a Parent: How Ordinary People Overcame Their Grief
By Katherine Fair Donnelly (1993). Covers grief, guilt, sibling problems and memories. 274pp.
Loss of a Sibling
The following can help with the loss of a sibling:
- A Birthday Present for Daniel: A Child’s Story of Loss
By Juliet Rothman (2001)
- Am I Still a Sister?
By Alicia Sims (1988) preteen
- Letters to Sara: The Agony of Adult Sibling Loss
By Anne McCurry (2001)
- Lost and Found: Remembering a Sister
By Ellen Yeoman (2000) for children
- Recovering from the Loss of a Sibling
By Katherine Fair Donnelly (1988). One of the few books on an often unacknowledged grief – the death of an adult sibling. 264pp.
- Surviving the Death of a Sibling: Living Through Grief When an Adult Brother or Sister Dies
By T.J. Wray (2003)
Loss of a Child
The following can help with the loss of a child:
- A Child Dies: A Portrait of Family Grief
by Joan H. Arnold & Penelope B. Gemma (1994)
- Give Sorrow Words: A Father's Passage through Grief
by Tom Crider (1996). 176pp.
- Goodbye, My Child
by Sara Wheeler & Margaret Pike (1993). Comforting and practical. Covers children of all ages. Addresses both women's and men's grief, and "red flags" of grief.
- Grieving the Child I Never Knew: A Devotional Companion for Comfort in the Loss of Your Unborn or Newly Born Child
by Kathe Wunnenberg (2001)
- Miscarriage: Women Sharing from the Heart
by Marie Allen & Shelly Marks (1993)
- The Bereaved Parent
by Harriet Sarnoff Schiff (1977). Considered a classic, and provides helpful counsel for those grieving a child's death. 146pp.
- The Worst Loss: How Families Heal From the Death of a Child
by Barbara D. Rosof (1994)
- The Compassionate Friends
Grief support after the death of a child
Male Grief
The following can help with the male grief:
- A Grief Observed
By C.S. Lewis (1961). A classic, famous author’s personal account of grief, doubts, rage and rediscovered faith following his wife’s death. 60pp.
- Father Loss: How Sons of All Ages Come to Terms With the Deaths of Their Dads
By Neil Chethick (2001).
- Men and Grief: A Guide for Men Suffering the Death of a Loved One, and a Resource for Caregivers and Mental Health Professionals
By Carol Staudacher (1991). The approach allows men to share their common ground; helps lessen sense of isolation. 225pp.
- When Men Grieve: Why Men Grieve Differently and How You Can Help
By Elizabeth Levang (1998).
- When Your Father Dies: How a Man Deals With the Loss of His Father
By Dave Veerman & Bruce Barton (2003).
- Why Her, Why Now: A Man’s Journey Through Love, Death, and Grief
By Lon Elmer (1990). Honest and hopeful. 209pp.
- Crisis Grief & Healing
Loss of a Spouse - Widow or Widower
- Being a Widow: A Compassionate, Practical Guide
By Lynn Caine (1988). Discusses anxiety attacks, need to express emotions, sleep problems, children, creating a new life, etc. 261pp.
- Beyond Loss: A Practical Guide Through Grief to a Meaningful Life
By Lilly Singer (1988). Includes three personal stories, specific day-to-day advice, encouragement. 162pp.
- Companion Through the Darkness: Inner Dialogues on Grief
By Stephanie Ericsson (1988). Legitimizes the intense and often taboo emotions felt after a loss. Brief chapters make it easy to be open and read at any point. 186pp.
- I’m Grieving as Fast as I Can: How Young Widows and Widowers Can Cope and Heal
By Linda Feinberg (1994). 180pp.
- It Must Have Been Moonglow
By Phyllis Greene. (2001). Reflections on the first years of widowhood through journal entries & essays. 160 pp.
- On Your Own: A Widow’s Passage to Emotional and Financial Well-Being
By Alexandra Armstrong & Mary Donahue (1993). 357pp.
- The Widow’s Handbook: A Guide for Dealing With the Emotional and Practical Aspects of Widowhood
By Charlotte Foehner (1988).
- The Year of Magical Thinking
By Joan Didion (2005). Reflections of the widow of a sudden death. 227pp.
- Widowed
By Dr. Joyce Brothers (1990). Discusses her own widowhood & offers direction for others. 256 pp.
- Widow’s Walk
By Anne Hosansky (1993). Personal story with helpful insights into grief and coping with major loss. 213pp.
General Resources
- “Bereavement” Magazine
A bimonthly publication which includes articles and poetry on the issues of grief and bereavement. Includes information about conferences and events. Published by Bereavement Publishing, Inc., 8133 Telegraph Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920. Telephone (719) 282-1948 or fax (719) 282-1850 or e-mail: grief@usa.net; www.bereavementmag.com
- Centering Corporation
A publishing company that provides literature and videos on topics ranging from newborn death and the death of a child or spouse, to children’s grief literature and workshop information. Call Centering Corporation at (402) 553-1200, or write them at: 1531 N. Saddle Creek Road, Omaha, NE 68104, to request a catalog.
- Conquering the Mysteries and Lies of Grief
by Sherry Russell (2002)
- Grief, Dying, & Death
By Therese Rando (1993). Champaign, IL: Research Press.
- Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief
By Martha W. Hickman (1994)
- How to Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies
By Therese Rando (1991). Clearly written; addresses sudden vs. anticipated death, many types of losses, and resolving grief. 338pp.
- How to Survive the Loss of a Love
By Melba Colgrove, Peter McWilliams and Harold Bloomfield (1993). Comforting guide to understanding loss. Suggests ways of surviving, healing and growing. Also includes losses other than death. 119pp.
- Living When a Loved One Has Died
By Earl Grollman (1977). Brief, easy to comprehend during the confusion and emotional upheaval of bereavement. 115pp.
- Surviving Grief…And Learning to Live Again
By Catherine Sanders (1992)
- Tear Soup
by Pat Schiverbert (2001)
- What Helped Me When My Loved One Died
By Earl A. Grollman (1981)
- When Bad Things Happen to Good People
By Harold Kushner (1983). A rabbi’s personal story of a son’s fatal illness. Explores the challenges to faith after tragedy. Compassionate and helpful. 149pp.
Internet Resources
Internet resources on general information regarding death and dying include:
Internet resources on children and teen grief: