Dear Grief, I shudder to refer to you as "dear." Yet you have been with me for so long that you have become a part of me, which I suppose entitles you to this term of affection, though my heart grants it unwillingly. You are an enigmatic and elusive creature, a chameleon, changing color with habitat and season. Some say you pass with time, like grains of sand sifting through my fingers, no longer resting in the safety of my palm. Others say you are a process, as if by accomplishing twelve prescribed steps I could graduate from your possession and be free of you. But you are not a process. You do not pass, at least not in this lifetime. You dwell with me - in me - but you are not my master. You roam on a leash, tethered by the One who owns you. You haven't always been here, and one day you'll disappear, for there's only one Alpha and Omega. One beginning and one end, and you are neither. You will not win, nor overcome. You've already been subdued and defeated, for "death has been swallowed up by victory" (1 Corinthians 15:54). A day is coming when you'll be deemed redundant and your crown obsolete. On that day, O Grief, you will no longer be called "dear" . . . nor even a distant memory. ___________________________________ Unfortunately, grief is not a 12-step process. It may contain five or more general stages, but even these stages are rarely a linear process. Grief is far more often a cyclical journey, like the stages of the moon. Always present, but not always visible. Since everyone endures loss in their own way, this collection of nine reflective letters to grief personified is descriptive, not prescriptive. Letters to Grief offers readers encouragement and hope to deal with loss and grief in the midst of their own unique circumstances. Readers are invited to reflect on their personal grief experience by writing in the journaling pages throughout the book.

On May 6, 2017, my husband, Derell Daniel, was killed in a car wreck. Our love story that began with love letters over twenty-five years ago as junior high school students took a tragic turn when my husband's life ended and grief stepped in. On my journey with grief, I have learned that the only way to get through grief is to be honest with your pain and just allow yourself to grieve. These letters represent a transparent look into the heartbreaking events that lead to, and follow, the death of my husband. Sometimes, grief is not about getting better: it's simply about getting through. Getting through the next second, the next minute, the next hour, the next day. Give yourself permission to take it one second at a time, because at times that's all you can do. The single most vital thing one can learn after the loss of a loved one is to accept the role grief will take in your life. This is my love letter to Grief, as I learn to accept that it may always walk beside me. This is my love letter to Grief, as I learn to navigate through life with the waves crashing all around me. This is also my love letter to you, so that you know that you are not alone, we walk together, yet separately, in our grief journey. If I can make this journey for one widow, one mother, one daughter, one person just a little easier to bear, I feel my husband's death will not be in vain.

A fascinating new volume of messages about motherhood, from the author of the bestselling Letters of Note collections. In Letters of Note: Mothers, Shaun Usher gathers together exceptional missives by and about mothers, celebrating the joy and grief, humour and frustration, wisdom and sacrifice the role brings to both parent and child. A young Egyptian girl mourns her mother's death in the fourth century AD. Melissa Rivers lovingly chides her mother, Joan, for treating her house like a hotel and taking her thirteen-year-old son to see Last Tango in Paris. Anne Sexton gives her daughter the advice to live life to the hilt, and be your own woman. In a letter to her teenage daughter, Caitlin Moran explains that some boys are as evil as vampires, and you must drive stakes through their hearts. The film Ladybird inspires journalist Hannah Woodhead to write an emotional letter to her mother. While at seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. writes that he has "the best mother in the world." These thirty letters capture the endless range of feelings that comes with being or having a mother. Includes letters from E.B. White, George Bernard Shaw, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sylvia Plath, Laura Dern, Baya Hocine, Louisa May Alcott, Wallac Stegner, and more.

SSecret letters spark true love in this emotionally compelling romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer. Juliet Young always writes letters to her mother, a world-traveling photojournalist. Even after her mother's death, she leaves letters at her grave. It's the only way Juliet can cope. Declan Murphy isn't the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he's trying to escape the demons of his past. When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist writing back. Soon, he's opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they're not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.

Presents a guide for dealing with grief and loss, detailing five steps of healing that can lead to a lifestyle alignment with personal values and new possibilities for a re-engaged life. --Publisher's description.

Powerfully written book about death, grief, loss and recovery

“Dear Ava, I loved your book.” —Award-winning actress Emma Watson For fans of Kathleen Glasgow and Amber Smith, Ava Dellaira writes about grief, love, and family with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty in this emotionally stirring, critically acclaimed debut novel, Love Letters to the Dead. It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was—lovely and amazing and deeply flawed—can she begin to discover her own path.

The death of your child breaks you. With some luck, you may be able to rebuild most of who you were before that loss so that you are not a complete stranger, even to yourself. Even then, you know that you will never be the same again. There will always be a piece of you missing, leaving you forever broken. With the loss of her son, Jeramie, to a car accident, author Daynabelle Anderson found this to be true of herself: a forever broken mom. She then had to decide whether to fight it and live her life, trying in vain to be whole again, only to punish herself over and over when her efforts resulted in failure. Or she could accept that this was who she was now--to allow herself to be broken and to forgive herself for it. She chose the latter, and now she chronicles her journey into that brokenness. This personal narrative offers one mother's story and her perspective on how to live with grief, intended for anyone who has lost a loved one and who feels pressured to move on.

WHAT IS THE GRIEF LETTER? "The Grief Letter" began as a personal letter from an associate pastor of a Tallahassee, Florida, flagship church, offering comfort and encouragement to individuals and families mourning the death of a loved one. Grieving recipients began calling it "the grief letter." Now "the grief letter" has become a full-length book, titled: "The Grief Letter" (TGL). TGL is a thoughtful grief gift for hurting hearts, an encouraging word for sorrow-torn spirits, a field guide for the journey of grief and a practical tool box for helping others in their grief and sorrow --- including grief professionals in their role as pastors, seminary professors, social workers, long term care providers and Hospice personnel. HOW WILL THE GRIEF LETTER HELP ME? TGL will help you and your loved ones deal with the sharp pain and deep sorrow of your grief. Reading TGL is like being with an understanding friend, who listens, offering a non-judgmental ear plus gentle guidance and faith support. TGL will help you along the dark and winding often confusing hallways of grief for as long as you may need help. Keep it close, read, pray. Allow TGL to help you with your grieving --- and maybe even your believing. As you move gradually through your grief, moving forward in your life again, TGL will help you grow toward the time when you will be able to help someone in their grief. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Author, Fran Buhler, possesses a unique background and experience which includes a 21-year ministry career, plus a prior 27-year marketing and business development career with Boston and Florida firms, including managing a Washington, D.C. office. He has published articles in multiple journals and national magazines. From Fran's two decades of grief ministry, conducting 776 funerals and memorial services, came first the letter and now the full-length book. TGL draws on Fran's graduate education from two institutions of theological and biblical study in addition to his personal journey and many years in ministry.

From the writer of the classic Letters to a Young Poet, reflections on grief and loss, collected and published here in one volume for the first time. “A great poet’s reflections on our greatest mystery.”—Billy Collins “A treasure . . . The solace Rilke offers is uncommon, uplifting and necessary.”—The Guardian Gleaned from Rainer Maria Rilke’s voluminous, never-before-translated letters to bereaved friends and acquaintances, The Dark Interval is a profound vision of the mourning process and a meditation on death’s place in our lives. Following the format of Letters to a Young Poet, this book arranges Rilke’s letters into an uninterrupted sequence, showcasing the full range of the great author’s thoughts on death and dying, as well as his sensitive and moving expressions of consolation and condolence. Presented with care and authority by master translator Ulrich Baer, The Dark Interval is a literary treasure, an indispensable resource for anyone searching for solace, comfort, and meaning in a time of grief. Praise for The Dark Interval “Even though each of these letters of condolence is personalized with intimate detail, together they hammer home Rilke’s remarkable truth about the death of another: that the pain of it can force us into a ‘deeper . . . level of life’ and render us more ‘vibrant.’ Here we have a great poet’s reflections on our greatest mystery.”—Billy Collins “As we live our lives, it is possible to feel not sadness or melancholy but a rush of power as the life of others passes into us. This rhapsodic volume teaches us that death is not a negation but a deepening experience in the onslaught of existence. What a wise and victorious book!”—Henri Cole