Blog

Welcome to the Grief Matters blog. We intend for this space to provide an opportunity for the Grief Matters community to write, read, share, and reflect about ‘all things grief.’ At Grief Matters, we understand grief as the experience of loss. This loss could be a death (a human, an animal). It could also be the loss of something else: your health, a job, an opportunity, a future goal, or dream.

While grief can look and feel different to every individual, we live our grief within our social networks and in our communities. We feel that community matters deeply to the experience of grief. So, we invite you to share with us in order to help create more grief-attuned communities.   

How does grief matter to you?   

What grief matters are important to you?   

Email us your ideas about how you could contribute to the Grief Matters blog. Please see our guest bloggers guidelines.

Read about the foundations of grief literacy here

Why is grief so uncomfortable to talk about?
Guest Blogger: Amanda Stevens Guest Blogger: Amanda Stevens

Why is grief so uncomfortable to talk about?

I lost my mom when she was only 59 years old. She was too young to leave this world, and I was too young to lose her. There were months and months filled with crippling pain, the kind that completely takes your breath away. I would wake up and realize all over again that my mom was gone forever.

Photo of a rose bush Amanda planted in memory of her mother. Look at the heart on the leaf!

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Are obituaries obsolete?
Guest Blogger: Rebecca Dingwell Guest Blogger: Rebecca Dingwell

Are obituaries obsolete?

During the visitation before my father’s funeral, a young guest looked around the crowded room and asked, “How do all these people know Ron is dead?” I had to stifle my laughter at the blunt (and valid) question. For someone who had little experience with death, the scene must’ve looked beyond bizarre: groups of grown-ups gathered in various corners, speaking solemnly at a low volume.

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Surrendering to My Grief One Step at a Time
Guest Blogger: Sarah Burm Guest Blogger: Sarah Burm

Surrendering to My Grief One Step at a Time

Grief has been a journey best travelled on foot for me. Walking helped me navigate through my mother’s unexpected illness and eventual death in 2021. Often, I strolled through the neighbouring streets of the hospice where my mom spent her last months, seeking solace from the looming reality of her impending death. The day I received the call of her passing, my husband suggested a walk in one of my favourite urban parks. Unsure of what else to do, I laced up my shoes and mustered the energy to put one foot in front of the other.  

Photo by Sarah Burm

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My Grief is on Full Display
Guest Blogger: Melissa Reid Lambert Guest Blogger: Melissa Reid Lambert

My Grief is on Full Display

My grief is on full display daily. I have been wearing my grief, in a variety of forms, for the past 22 years. When my son died just hours after he was born, his tiny body was taken in a bassinet to the morgue and I was told that I was free to go home. I had to collect my bag, my clothes, my hopes and dreams, and leave the hospital without him.

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Why I love Dan Levy’s Good Grief movie
Susan Cadell Susan Cadell

Why I love Dan Levy’s Good Grief movie

Recently, a family member commented that there was a movie coming out that had three of my favorite things. My social media tends to be an echo chamber of my interests and so I already knew about the upcoming movie, written by and starring Dan Levy, called Good Grief. So, I said that two were grief and queerness, but I could not figure out the third.

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Falling leaves marking time
Mary Ellen Macdonald Mary Ellen Macdonald

Falling leaves marking time

Falling leaves marking time. Autumn is the hardest season for me. It can be a melancholy time in the northern hemisphere, with leaves changing colour and sweaters coming out of storage. In Canada, I physically steel myself for the holing up I will do over the next few months as I turn up the thermostat, get out the couch throws, and change to flannel bedsheets.

Photo by Karolina Bobek

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