Relationship Loss Grief

When Harvard-trained physician Dr. Annie Brewster was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001, she realized firsthand that the medical system to which she’d devoted her entire career was failing patients. The experience was dehumanizing. Her doctors weren’t listening. And the confusion, fear, and shame she felt around her diagnosis was preventing her from truly healing, claiming her story, and living her fullest, richest life. Here, Dr. Brewster and journalist Rachel Zimmerman each share their own personal stories, acting as expert guides as you move forward on your healing journey.

William Peter Blatty, the best-selling author and Oscar Award-winning screenwriter of The Exorcist, lived a charmed life among the elite stars of Hollywood. His son, Peter, born over a decade after The Exorcist, grew from an apple-cheeked boy into an "imposing young man with a quick, warm smile". But when Peter died very suddenly from a rare disorder, Blatty's world turned upside down.

Modern medical technology is allowing us to live longer and fuller lives than ever before. But with changes in the way we understand medicine come changes in the way we understand death. Once a familiar and gentle process, death has come to be something from which we shy away, preferring to fight it desperately than to accept its inevitability. Palliative care has a long tradition in Britain, where Dr. Kathryn Mannix has practiced it for 30 years. In this book, she shares beautifully crafted stories from a lifetime of caring for the dying.

Infused with Monica's signature blend of empathy, authenticity, and light-hearted humor, Messages from Above will make you laugh as much as you cry. It's for anyone who's ever struggled with unresolved questions and feelings such as guilt or disbelief after losing a loved one. It's for people who've wondered: What happens when we die? Do dogs go to Heaven? What are soul contracts? Can the dead watch us have sex?

No one can take away your pain - but there is something you can do to grow from it. Each time someone passes away, they leave behind an average of five grieving people. Grief will affect every single one of us at some point in our lives. It’s an inevitable and natural fact of life, yet it is one of the hardest things we will ever go through. Grief can be debilitating. It takes us unaware, and it can be so raw and painful that we become unable to function, much less move forward and process our feelings.

On the morning of May 11, 2015, Erin Davis, one of Canada’s most beloved radio personalities, suffered a devastating blow when her daughter, Lauren, who had marked a joyous Mother’s Day with her husband and young son only hours before, failed to awaken to her baby’s cries. Thus began Erin’s journey of grieving out loud with her family, friends, and listeners and of demonstrating by example how to pick up and keep going after suffering the worst loss a parent can endure.

How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of lapidary meditations on writers, artists, musicians, and their works - from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and Primo Levi - esteemed writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience.

Since losing her mother to cancer in 2018 and her sister to alcoholism three years later, author and journalist Dina Gachman has dedicated herself to understanding what it means to grieve, how to live with loss, and the ways we stay connected to those we miss. Through a mix of personal storytelling, reporting, and insight from experts, Gachman gives listeners a fresh take on grief—whether the loss is a family member, beloved pet, or a romantic relationship.

Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross created her classic seminal work, On Death and Dying, to offer us a new perspective on the terminally ill. It is not a psychoanalytic study, nor is it a "how-to" manual for managing death. Rather, it refocuses on the patient as a human being and a teacher, in the hope that we will learn from him or her about the final stages of life.

When Steph Catudal met her husband Rivs, she thought that the love, stability, and warmth she shared with her husband had finally dispelled her pent-up anger and grief over the loss of her father and her faith. But when Rivs became ill and was put into coma at the height of the pandemic, the painful memories of her childhood—watching her father die of cancer—came flooding back.

In Bring the Joy, Jessica Janzen shares her experience in following those nudges of her heart to find true and lasting joy. From the bliss of her dramatic, romantic saga with her now husband, to the trials and triumph of her career journey as a young women, to the devastating loss of her son when he was only six months old, Jessica's commitment to follow the nudges of her heart have seen her through every season.

David Kessler, one of the most renowned experts on death and grief, takes on three uniquely shared experiences that challenge our ability to explain and fully understand the mystery of our final days. In the tapestry of life and death, we may begin to see connections to the past that we missed in life. While death may look like a loss to the living, the last hours of a dying person may be filled not with emptiness, but rather with fullness.

When Motherless Daughters was published 20 years ago, it unleashed a tsunami of healing awareness. When Denna Babul and Karin Luise couldn't find the equivalent book for fatherlessness, The Fatherless Daughter Project was born. The book will set fatherless women on the path to growth and fulfillment by helping them to understand how their losses have impacted their lives.

Leanne Friesen thought she knew a lot about bereavement. She had studied it in school and preached at memorial services. But only when her own sister died from cancer did she learn, in her very bones, what grieving people don't need—and what they do. In Grieving Room, Friesen writes with vulnerability, wisdom, and somehow even wit about the stark and sacred lessons learned at deathbeds and funerals, and pushes back against a world that wants to minimize our sorrow and avoid our despair.

As an analyst working with the dying, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés has developed seminal methods to help ease the fear that can accompany the dying process. In The Radiant Coat, this bestselling author shares myths and stories first told at the bedsides of the dying to comfort them and their loved ones. For other cultures, Dr. Estés teaches, death holds no terror. It is in fact characterized as an ally, a wise and caring figure, leading departed souls through the starry night into the next day.

We all experience hurts, especially early in our lives, that cause us to adapt for protection and emotional survival: that create our unconscious “shadows.” Yet the tendency in our culture is to suppress or ignore pain, which only fuels our shadows’ needs for domination or victimization. In this book, Pixie encourages us to shift perspective, and to see our shadows as frightened inner children, desperate to even out the imbalances of our developmental years.

Are you struggling to find peace after the loss of your beloved pet? Whiskers in the Wind: Embracing Life After Pet Loss is here to guide you through your grief. Written by Annalise Paige Quinn, who has personally faced the profound pain of losing her dear cat, Layla, this compassionate guide offers understanding, comfort, and practical advice to help you heal.

Caring for the Dying describes a whole new way to approach death and dying. It explores how the dying and their families can bring deep meaning and great comfort to the care given at the end of a life. Created by Henry Fersko-Weiss, the end-of-life doula model is adapted from the work of birth doulas and helps the dying to find meaning in their life, express that meaning in powerful and beautiful legacies, and plan for the final days.

Everyone will experience grief at some point in their lives. There is no one answer to overcoming the grieving process, but understanding it is key. According to The 5 Stages of Grief, there are five stages that a person goes through after a loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Each stage has its own challenges and needs that must be addressed in order to move on. However, by recognizing these early signs and addressing them head-on, most people can overcome their grief and move on with their lives.

Embark on a heartfelt "Journey Through Grief: Honoring Beloved Pets And Beyond" as this poignant book offers solace and healing to those mourning the loss of cherished animal companions. With compassion and understanding, the author guides listeners through the grieving process, providing comforting reflections, practical advice, and meaningful rituals to honor the memories of beloved pets.