Grieving Resources

Hey loves,
Here's some stuff I put together for myself after my aunt's death a few years back. Hopefully some of it will help you, too.

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Brilliant Books

Books that I've found useful during the grieving process.

The Grieving Teen- By Helen Fitzgerald. One of the most helpful books I have read, it explains so much about the pain we feel, and about the guilt. It asks questions to help teens understand what THEY feel and answers questions to give some understanding about what in the world is going on. It lists ways to find closure and other ways to help know when your grief may have taken a bad turn, and when it’s time to get help. It also provides books and websites for teens to look at if they need any extra help understanding and healing. Highly helpful.

Chicken Soup For The Grieving Soul - Stories compiled by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen tell about life, death, and overcoming the loss of a loved one. A great read that is “like having a talk with a wise, caring and compassionate friends.” This book is perfect for anyone who has lost someone they love, or a friend standing on the sidelines in a grieving person’s life. You WILL need tissues.

A Summer To Die- Written by two-time Newberry Award winner Lois Lowry, this book “captures the mysteries of living and dying…providing understanding and a comforting sense of completion.” For those who have lost someone they love to cancer, this book provides the feeling they are not alone in their grief, for though the book is fiction, there are some very real emotions in this book, and the afterword, written by Lois Lowry, will give you a sense of hope for your future.

When A Friend Dies: A Book For Teens about Grieving & Healing- Penned by Marilyn E. Goodman, Ed.D. Although written specifically for those who have lost a friend and/or classmate, this book also makes sense of the emotions that any griever is feeling. Containing quotes and real-life stories, this book tells others who have lost someone that it’s okay to grieve, and that they are not alone.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven- Written by Mitch Albom, this book gives a twist to the way that people view heaven. It tells the (fictional) story of the death of a man named Eddie- and what happens afterward. Filled with inspirational words and shocking twists, this book is a very good read for those who often wonder what heaven could be like- and offers a sense of hope for what has happened to their beloved who have departed from this world.

Tuesdays With Morrie- Also by Mitch Albom, this book tells the true story of one of Mr. Albom’s college professors, a man named Morrie Schwartz, who is slowly dying of Lou Gherig’s Disease (ASL) and some of the astute advice he gives to Mitch about death, dying, and life. A very soothing, wisdom-filled book, it will surely change the way that you look at death, and life. This one’s probably a tissue-needer too.

Living With Grief- Written by Dr. Bernadine Woo and Geraldine Wong, mostly for the parents of children living with grief. It shows how different age groups show their grief in different ways, and gives insight as to how to help. For those who have younger siblings or other relatives struggling to deal with grief, or simply want help on dealing with their grief themselves, this is a good read.

Green Angel- Authored by Alice Hoffman, this book tells the story of a young girl who lost her whole family in a tragic fire that destroyed an entire city. It tells the tale through her eyes of how she deals with the pain and the loss, and ends with her discovery that just because they are gone, doesn’t not mean that they aren’t with her.

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Quotable Quotes

“Mourning is not forgetting…It is an undoing. Every minute tie has to be untied and something permanent and valuable recovered and assimilated from the dust.” -Margery Allingham

“There are no good-byes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” -Mahatma Gandhi

“It is through giving that we receive, and it is through dying that we are born to eternal life.” -Saint Francis of Assisi

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life; it goes on.” -Robert Frost

“Trouble is a part of life, and if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough.” -Dinah Shore

“The human spirit is stronger than anything that happens to it.” -C.C. Scott

“When someone dies, they still live on in you and me, and everyone else who loved them.” -Jessica Ann Farley

“Think of him still as the same, I say. He is not dead; he is just- away.” -James Whitcomb Riley

“Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save a limit of our sight.” -Anonymous

“They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.” -William Penn

“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” -Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Paradise isn’t just timeless gardens. It is rebirth which needs death first.” -Calliope, from Francesca Lia Block's Primavera

Bruce: Do you think part of us goes on when we die?
Wally: I... She asked you that, didn’t she?
Bruce: *nods*
Wally: Wow…
Bruce: Yeah…I just…didn’t know what to say. So?
Wally: So, what?
Bruce: What do you think the answer is?
Wally: Well….oddly enough….I like to think of it scientifically.
Bruce: Come again?
Wally: Yeah, I know….the unknown ….the life beyond, more spiritual right?
Bruce: *nods*
Wally: I think about it like this, ‘Matter can neither be created nor destroyed,’ right? It just changes state. So what if that’s what happens to our souls as well….We just go to a higher existence, or just exist on an undetectable wavelength is all….
-From the Justice League fanfiction story Ace's Wonderland by Mists

Bernie Capax: But I did okay, didn’t I? I mean I got, what, fifteen thousand years? That’s pretty good, isn’t it? I lived a pretty long time.
Death: You lived what anybody gets, Bernie. You got a lifetime. No more. No less.
-From the comic SANDMAN #43: “Brief Lives: 3”

"If you bring me back to life, my death will have no meaning. I had a fine existence... I lived a good life and it ended. Would you take that away from me?" -Fiddler's Green, in SANDMAN #70, part one of "The Wake"

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Well, that's it for now. I'll get around to adding more, like songs or videos, or more quotes/books later. If y'all have some recommendations just post 'em and I'll add them into this main post.

Hope this helps!
~Drea