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Why Everyone Needs To Stop Referring To Death As A “Loss”

What You Shouldn’t Say To Someone In Mourning

When It’s Totally Okay To Pull An Irish Goodbye

I Have Sudden Onset Only Child Syndrome

I was just a month past my second birthday when my brother Frank was born, and I cannot remember a time when I did not define myself as an older sister to

7 Ways To Talk To A Mother Who Has Lost Her Child

I received a postcard from my sister on my first Mother’s Day after giving birth. She’d sent it from Brazil. It was a postcard for tourists — a beaut

How Star Wars Echoed My Experience Of Loss

Parents (or aunts and uncles) who grew up in the 70s and 80s have myriad concerns. But beyond sleep training, preschool applications and Internet safety, l

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The Strange Way My Dad’s Death Affected My Love Life

In 2011, the same year I lost my father to an AIDS-related illness, I lost my virginity to a man I barely knew. I also moved to Washington Heights in Manha

The Ominous Question That Told Me Everything I Didn’t Want ...

Two and a half years ago, my dad died of lung cancer. His decline was quick and steep. I found out about his death while on a train headed to my parent

One Woman’s Struggle With Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Death

By Emily Ziff In 2002, I took a job as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s assistant. My desk was in the bedroom of his two-room walk-up in the West Village. Mo

Getting Through Mother’s Day When You Don’t Have A Mom

I anticipated my first motherless Mother’s Day in the same way I’d anticipated my first day at Catholic school or the first time I had sex.

Sur

Coming To Terms With My Son’s Death From Tay-Sachs Disease

By Emily Rapp Black Driving home from work one night this week, the weak winter daylight already gone, the whir of lights lining the traffic lanes to my le

The First 24 Hours After My Friend’s Death, In Photos

A very dear friend passed away recently. She was my mom’s best friend, a second mother to me growing up.

How Ignoring My Grandma’s Calls Helped Me Grieve For Her

By Sara Goldfarb“What’s the matter with you? Is your finger broken?” This was my grandmother's typical refrain w

Time Stopped For Me The Day My Cat Died

By Carla Zanoni “She knows everything,” my best friend told me when I said we’d decided to put our 16-year-old cat to sleep. She was righ

How My Divorce Helped Me Get Through My Mother’s Death

By Miriam GottfriedI went home to Portland, Oregon to celebrate New Year’s in the waning days of December 2011. In the few months since my previ

How Wild Helped Me Heal, Years After My Mom Died

I am part of a population of women whose ranks I never imagined I would join: women whose mothers died too soon. Although there is never a good time to los

When My Parents Died, I Was Terrified To Go On Living

I was met with wailing screams on the other end of the line. “Stevan, sit down. Promise me you are sitting down.” You know how they say that in that mo

How I Resolved To Help Friends Dealing With Death

By Gabrielle Birkner I just finished writing a condolence note that I should have sent off some three months ago. I should know better; I do know better. A

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Why I’m Not The Same Person I Was When My Boyfriend Died

By Megan Devine New Year’s Eve was never a holiday that mattered to me, but 2009 was different. My partner, Matt, had drowned that summer. The last d

A 500-Mile Hike With My Boyfriend’s Ashes Helped Me Heal

By Sarah Fox It had been raining for two days. With each step, my feet squished into the soles of my hiking boots. The straps of my backpack dragged my wet

Home Was No Longer Home After My Brother’s Death

By Nikki Reimer The grief experts advise the mourner not to make any drastic life changes within the first year. Because I am an idiot, I make all the life

Losing My Mom Left Me Stumbling Through My 20s

By Caroline McCarthy Throughout my twenties there were more times than I can count when I found myself in a situation that made me think, “This would

There’s More Than One Way To Die With Dignity

By Kerry Donahue Suffering from terminal cancer, Brittany Maynard ended her life on November 1. My friend Chris Doheny, after a transplant rejection, made

News Of Dad’s Death, Spread On Facebook

Illustrated by Elliot Salazar. By Amanda MacGregor When my father was killed in a car accident in late 2012, I wasn’t exactly the last to know. But,

My Dead Husband, The Serial Adulterer

Illustrated by Elliot Salazar. This is my confession. It’s long overdue, yet my fingers are itching as though I am allergic to the words I type: I wa

I Wish My Mom Were Alive To Hate The Kardashians With Me

Photo: Courtesy of Modern Loss. The thing about having a dead mom is that everyone assumes you miss her most during crucial and memorable milestones. &ldqu