Dealing With Grief After Death

Video Transcript

"The best way to understand grief after death is to understand that grief is a process. It is an experience that people must go through after the death of a loved one. There is no time limit. There is no prescription to follow. It is just something that people experience after the loss of a loved one. People are always asking well how long will it take? When will it be over? There are no answers to that. But our best response is it is important to grieve at the time of the loss, not later on when another loss occurs. Grief is something that must be experienced. The sadness, the anger, sometimes some relief that comes with the loss after someone has been ill for a long time. But when there are people telling you it is time to move on, it is time to get over it, grief is something that just changes. People learn to live with their loss. They don't forget, they don't get over, they just learn to live with the loss and the feelings of sadness that may come up periodically with a song and a holiday time but people do move on. But they just move on differently. Grief is something that must be experienced. Sometimes it is helpful to get the help of some professionals, a support group, a counselor, someone from the faith community, or other people who have experienced a loss similar so that you can share that story over and over again. Nothing is more healing than to be able to tell the story of the loss over and over again. But there is no prescription, there is no stages, it is just the experience of going through the loss and experience the feelings, to feeling sad but also to know that there is some growth at the end and some light at the end of the tunnel. I'm Sandi Sunter with The Hospice of the Florida Sun Coast."