Grief Digest Articles

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 …

Nancy Harrison At my age, I’ve learned that the conversations that matter most are the ones about real life - the messy, beautiful, complicated parts that make us human. We talk about family, about memories, about the people we’ve loved and lost. We share stories about our children and grandchildren, worry about their futures, and marvel at how the world has changed. Health becomes a frequent topic, not in a morbid way, but practically - comparing doctors, sharing what works, ce …

By Heather Hattie-Mae Mahaney For as long as I can remember, music was our language. My late husband used to make me mixed tapes — carefully crafted collections of songs that somehow said all the things we did not need to speak aloud - things that we felt when the music played. His love for music ran deep, across every genre, and it was something we shared since childhood. I inherited it from my mother; he from his stepmother. Both women filled our homes with melodies. In high school, he c …

By Ama There’s a kind of grief that doesn't come with casseroles or condolences. It doesn’t wear black or take time off work. No one calls to check in. There’s no ceremony, no eulogy. But it can hollow you out just the same. It’s the grief for the life you should have had. I’m talking about the grief that lives in people like me, people who grew up without safety, without care, without anyone to tell them they mattered. People who were hurt and then blamed for it. W …