BEREAVEMENT & COPING:

• AARP (American Association of Retired Persons):

• "Helping Grandchildren Deal with Grief" - Grandparents can’t protect their grandchildren from events that cause pain and grief. But they can help their grandchild cope with loss.

• Adult Sibling Grief

• "Art of Condolence":

• Posted by St. Olaf College, from a "Book Review of the Art of Condolence," by P. V. Johnson, Fall 1991, in Caregivers Quarterly, 6 (3), 3-4.
• See also: "Grief Tips-Help for Those Who Mourn", by James E. Miller.

• Bereaved Parents of the USA

• Beyond Indigo:

• Mission: A topic & community site, maintained by a commercial company, with the byline "Changing the way you feel about grief & loss".
• Synopsis: "The goal of this company is to provide grief support, products and services to individuals and companies who assist people who are grieving. Beyond Indigo is listed in Forbes Best of the Web for the 6th consecutive year for grief support message boards! Beyond Indigo, is the web's leading source of information on grief, grieving, death and dying. Beyond Indigo offers detailed and heartfelt support and well-managed information."
  

• Brooke, Jill, "Don't Let Death Ruin Your Life: A Practical Guide to Reclaiming Happiness After the Death of a Loved One":

• Published by Dutton Adult (2001), 288 pages.
• Synopsis: Former CNN correspondent Brooke--who lost her father at 16 and later an unborn child--has interviewed hundreds of people about their loss of loved ones for this journalistic compendium of ways to transform grief into healing. Though not as deep or authoritative as other books on grieving, this one covers more ground. Emphasizing the futility and harmfulness of shutting out grief, Brooke suggests ways to remember and memorialize the departed. Women often find it easier to grieve than men, she notes, while children reprocess loss as they develop cognitively. Acknowledging that the path of grief is variable, she observes that only some friends turn out to be reliable sources of support; the Internet and journals can be useful resources, as are physical activity and therapy. Brooke advises those who are grieving to start a family genealogy, suggests strategies for honoring a deceased spouse in a new marriage, and proposes exercises for helping kids foster positive memories."

• Caring Connections:

  • Grief

• Compassionate Friends:

• Mission:"[A}ssist families toward the positive resolution of grieffollowing the death of a child of any age and to provide informationto help others be supportive. [A] national nonprofit,self-help support organization that offers friendship, understanding, and hope to bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. There is no religiousaffiliation and there are no membership dues or fees."

• Continuum Health Partners & StopPain:

• Care of the Family

• Deits, Robert, Life After Loss: A Practical Guide to Renewing Your Life After Experiencing Major Loss:

• Published by Da Capo Press (2004), 256 pages.
  
• Synopsis: "Loss can be overwhelming, and recovery sometimes seems terribly daunting, if not impossible. * * * [T]he only way past grief is through it. In this newly revised edition of Life after Loss, Deits offers sound guidance for navigating the uncertain terrain of grief. With practical and compassionate advice, personal stories, and helpful exercises, Life after Loss is not just about understanding grief -- it's about doing something about it."

• Didion, Joan, The Year of Magical Thinking (2005):

• Synoposis: This book "is an account of the year following the death of the author's husband John Gregory Dunne (1932-2003). Published by Knopf in October 2005, the book was immediately acclaimed as a classic in the genre of mourning literature. It won the National Book Award in November 2005. The narrative structure of the book parallels the mental re-living of a tragic event that is common to many experiences of grief. * * * Didion also incorporates medical and psychological research on grief and illness into the book."
• Book Reviews: "The Black Album", by John Leonard, in the New York Review of Books (Volume 52, Number 16; 10/20/05); and "The Long Goodbye", by Andrew O'Hehir, published by Salon Media Group (10/18/05) -- "Joan Didion has opened her veins on the page, as we pretty much knew she would. Her only choices, given what has befallen her, were to die herself or to write about it."

• Dougy Center for Grieving Children

  • Mission: "The Dougy Center was the first center in the United States to provide peer support groups for grieving children. * * * [W]e provide support and training locally, nationally and internationally to individuals and organizations seeking to assist children in grief."
    
  • Resources: Materials, activities for children under age 12, information for parents on helping their children.

• Forgotten Grief:

• Mission: This is an informational personal resource about the death of children, including infants. Most of what is on the site represents 25 years' of the work of Dr. Elizabeth K. Best, and is generally free.
• Excerpt: "Of all the experienceswhich most try the hearts and souls of parents, the most difficult by far is the loss of a Child. This is complicated further when the death occurs when a birth instead is expected: Sorrow and Grief quickly replace Joy and Expectation. This complex and delicate grief at the death of an infant is often obscured by family, friends and society leaving parents bewildered and hurting with little recourse. Trusted relationships are tried and sometimes severed, and even persons of deep faith struggle for survival in their relationship with God."

• Grief and Bereavement: In Loving Memory

• Healing the Grieving Heart: "The Grief Blog"

• Help Guide on Coping with Loss

• Highmark Caring Place:

  • Mission: "A center for grieving children, adolescents and their families."
    
  • Synopsis: "The Highmark Caring Place takes its inspiration from Fred Rogers, who held that sharing the difficult things in life is the necessary first step in managing them. We work to provide a safe place, a caring and supportive atmosphere, and a strong and accepting adult presence. Within this atmosphere, these children and their families can discuss, and ultimately manage their grief, and thereby attain optimal health and maximize their potentials."
    

• Mayo Clinic:

  • Terminal Illness: Interacting with a Terminally Ill Loved One

• Neeld, Elizabeth Harper (Ph.D.), Seven Choices:

• Published by Warner Books (2003), 480 pages.
  
• Synopsis: "Everyone experiences grief, but few books offer real help with the debilitating emotions of bereavement. Now, an internationally respected authority on personal change maps the terrain between life as it was and life as it can be. Readers can move at their own pace through the seven distinct phases of loss and can work towards a stronger, more balanced self. The author's own story of the loss of a young husband, combined with the tales of dozens of individuals, and the most recent research on coping with loss, helps readers to become happier, healthier, and wiser beings."
  

• Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association:

  • Grief Resources