“When my wife and I lost our son, we had similar but very different experiences. She felt she was caught in a blizzard and she doesn’t remember the six months after we lost him. For me, it was like everything that I had known burnt to the ground, this field or forest that was turned to ash, burning, smoldering. How do I make sense of a world where this can happen? – Sean Hanish”

“The best advice that I got during counseling: Don’t judge your spouse’s grief response. Give them the freedom to grieve their own way. – Rachel Crawford”

“Trust your partner’s way of coping to be the best they are able to do and be at every moment in time.”

“I don’t think we had a joint mission to keep our relationship together. It was like: “Every man for himself.” I was in so much pain, I wasn’t really looking out for your interests. I didn’t have the facility or resource to really do that, to be there for you. Thankfully everything held together. Our love for each other kept on a progression. It could have easily gone the other way.” – Jonathan Pascual”

“Honestly, death took on a totally different meaning for me in the past years…..I don’t feel the fear or trepidation about death that I used to feel. I felt tired of living.”

“We do not have control over many things in life and death but we do have control over the meaning we give it.”

“We do not “get over” a death. We learn to carry the grief and integrate the loss in our lives. In our hearts, we carry those who have died. We grieve and we love. We remember.”

“There is no right way to grieve; there is only your way to grieve and that is different for everyone.”

“There are many different ways in which individuals express, experience, and adapt to grief. Understanding and accepting different ways of grieving lies at the heart of surviving your loss as a couple. Understanding is helpful but not absolutely necessary. Acceptance of your partner’s approach however is a necessity. If you have not reached acceptance, make it your first priority.”

“Just because we lost a life, doesn’t mean we have to lose ourselves. – Tamara Gabriel”

“Grieving is intense and it is non-stop intense. Even if things are quiet, and you’re sitting there in your chair, kind of staring off into space, inside, the intensity is raging. – Lori Ennis”

“Some things cannot be fixed; they can only be carried. Grief like yours, love like yours, can only be carried.Survival in grief, even eventually building a new life alongside grief, comes with the willingness to bear witness, both to yourself and to the others who find themselves inside this life they didn’t see coming. Together, we create real hope for ourselves,and for one another. We need each other to survive.I wish this for you: to find the people you belong with, the ones who will see your pain, companion you, hold you close,even as the heavy lifting of grief is yours alone. As hard as they may seem to find at times, your community is out there. Lookfor them. Collect them. Knit them into a vast flotilla of light that can hold you.”

“Grief does not demand pity; It requests acknowledgement” – Jude Gibbs”