Grief Digest Articles

By Camille Johnson Grief doesn’t just come in tears or silence. Sometimes it arrives as racing thoughts, a pounding chest, or the sudden need to leave a room. For many people, anxiety is how grief expresses itself. It can be erratic, physical, and overwhelming. These aren’t episodes of “being dramatic.” They’re real, somatic alarms from a nervous system struggling to recalibrate after loss. The line between sadness and fear blurs fast. That’s why preventing an …

By Tim Schramm, Licensed Funeral Director and National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) member As Grief Awareness Day approaches on August 30, I'm reminded of a fundamental truth I've witnessed countless times in my three decades as a funeral director: the families who struggle most with loss are often those who try to skip the very rituals designed to help them heal. Every week in our Detroit-area funeral homes, we facilitate grief support groups for 35 to 60 community members—not ju …

On Love, Grief, and What Remains By Heather Hattie-Mae Mahaney “Even stillness has weight. When it breaks, petals remember their edge.” When the quiet breaks, flowers will fall.The silence held like breath in a chapel—but even stillness has weight.When it breaks,petals remember their edge.The vase tips.Memory spills.And I—I gather what's leftfrom the floor of that moment. It began with a bouquet. Back when I worked at the engineering firm, my boss—a high-octane adre …

By Ama Al- Zaki  Grief doesn’t simply disappear. It doesn’t fade away like a distant memory or pass like a storm. Instead, it settles quietly inside us, waiting to resurface in the most ordinary moments, often when we least expect it. Sometimes it comes as a scent carried on the breeze, a sound that stirs a memory, or an everyday object that suddenly feels heavy with meaning. These small reminders can hit like a wave, pulling us back to the moment we lost someone dear. The pai …

by Nan Zastrow “Gonna need a bigger boat”when adversity changes your relationship with grief “Dear God, be good to me…. the sea is so big, and my boat is so small.” The 50th anniversary of the Jaws movies recently aired on television,  and I decided to binge watch the series. Of course, I anticipated and waited for the iconic line:  “Gonna need a bigger boat.” Delighted, I smiled at its familiarity. I hit the rewind and listened again. It reso …