Reflections on Dying

When it comes to death and dying, we have many questions. The BBC has a selection of videos called Reflections on Dying that address topics such as what it’s like to have a near-death experience, how to cope with knowing how you might die, why we need to face our own mortality and more.  

Death of a Loved One: The Year of Firsts

This winter, my very close friend lost her mom. She and her siblings were very close to their mother and so the loss of her mother was significant. I knew the feeling of losing a parent. Going through the death of a parent is a difficult process, but I also knew that it wasn’t over.

In the Footsteps of Grief

Jennifer was 41 when she was killed by a motorcycle while crossing the street. She left behind a loving husband and two young boys. Her husband, Tim, in his grief, began to keep a diary of their life without her, one year after she died. Diary of a Widower is Tim’s way of maneuvering his […]

Death and Food

From sin eaters to sharing food that is symbolic of the circle of life, eating together after a loss is a communal grief practice throughout time and culture.

A Child Shows Us How to Mourn

Kate Braestrup shares the story of Nina, a five-year-old who insisted to her parents that she needed to visit her dead cousin and best friend Andy, a four-year-old, at a nearby funeral parlor.

When Death Is Not Separate

The way of death in North America is not the way in other cultures. Anthropologist Kelli Swazey asks, “What would life be like if the dead literally lived alongside you?”