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For Grieving Families

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When you lose a child, most people immediately seek out support to relieve their pain. Here we offer a list of resources for bereaved families.

“Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow; I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am sunlight on ripened grain; I am the gentle autumn’s rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there. I do not sleep”

Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905-2004)

BEREAVED FAMILY SUPPORT

The Maine-based Center for Grieving Children is a nonprofit organization that provides a safe space, loving peer support, outreach, and education to grieving children, teens, young adults, families and the community. 

Center for Grieving Children, Maine

The Dougy Center is world-renowned for their expertise and approach to childhood bereavement. Our peer grief support model is used by over 500 organizations worldwide. Dougy Center provides groups both in-person (near Portland, OR), and virtually through the Zoom platform.

Dougy Center

The alliance is a national organization of professionals dedicated to supporting children and the networks and communities surrounding them.

National Alliance for Children’s Grief

The Miss Foundation provides counseling resources, advocacy information, research on traumatic grief, education for healthcare providers and community members, and support services for those grieving the death, or impending death, of a child. This is also the home of the Selah Carefarm in AZ and the beloved 50 rescued animals who help traumatically bereaved families from around the world every day.

The MISS Foundation – The Selah Retreat

The Children’s Room, in Cambridge, MA, creates safe, supportive communities, so that no child, teen, or family has to grieve alone. At TCR, children, teens, and their families have an opportunity to find connection and community after the death of a parent or sibling.  Some programs are offered in-person and some online through Zoom.  

The Children’s Room

With multiple chapters around the country, including in MA, the Tears Foundation seeks to compassionately lift the financial burden from families who have lost a child, and offer comprehensive bereavement care in the form of grief support groups and peer companions.

The Tears Foundation

Hope Floats is a bereavement and educational center in Kingston, MA for adults, children, teens, and their families who are grieving, dealing with illness, or facing other life challenges. Our free support services bring hope and healing to those in need.

Hope Floats, Massachusetts

A course exclusively crafted for grieving dads who have faced the unbearable.  It is based off hard lessons learned from the presenter’s journey and the thousands of conversations he has had with other grieving dads over the last 15 years. 

Grieving Dads Project

Our partner, Lucy’s Love Bus, offers group programs and individual integrative therapies for families in New England impacted by childhood cancer, including bereaved siblings and parents.

Lucy’s Love Bus

    “Especially when you’re grieving… Remember to take care of yourself with kindness, compassion, and without judgement.”
    – HealGrief.org

    ONLINE GRIEF SUPPORT

    Bereaved Parents of Childhood Cancer (Facebook Group)

    Parents who lost children to cancer (Facebook Group)

    Momcology – Bereaved (Facebook Group)

    Compassionate Friends (Facebook Group) –  https://www.compassionatefriends.org

    Bereaved Parents of the USA (Facebook Group) – https://www.bereavedparentsusa.org/

    Southern ME Chapter of Bereaved Parents of the USA (Facebook Group)

    Helping Parents Heal (Facebook Group) – https://www.helpingparentsheal.org/

    What’s Your Grief (Facebook Group) – www.whatsyourgrief.com

    Still Standing Magazine (Facebook Group) – https://stillstandingmag.com/

    Tom Zuba, Permission to Mourn (Tom Zuba on fb) – https://www.tomzuba.com/ 

    David Kessler, Grief.com (David Kessler on fb) – https://grief.com/

    “i. cry.
    for the life you lived
    and the one you didn’t.”
    – Unknown

    BEREAVEMENT RETREATS AND TRIPS

    BEREAVED SIBLING CAMPS

    “A mother always carries her children.
    Sometimes she carries their life.
    Sometimes she carries their death.
    But she will always carry them, no matter where they are.”
    – Rachel Lewis

    BOOKS DEALING WITH GRIEF AND THE AFTERLIFE

    • Let me Sow Love: Letters of Hope for Bereaved Parents – Cancer-specific child loss (order here)
    • It’s Ok That you’re Not Ok. Megan Devine.
    • On Grief and Grieving. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler
    • Transcending Loss. Ashley Davis Bush
    • To Heaven and Back. Mary Neal, MD
    • Permission to Mourn. Tom Zuba
    • Becoming Radiant. Tom Zuba
    • Bearing the Unbearable. Joanne Cacciatore, PhD
    • Grief Is A Journey. Dr. Kenneth J. Doka.
    • Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul. Jack Canfield & Mark Hansen
    • Imagine Heaven. John Burke.
    • Transcending Loss. Ashley Davis Bush.
    • The Unspeakable Loss of a Child. Nisha Zenoff.
    • Living After Losing A Child. Ellen Mitchell.
    • The Grief Club. Melody Beattie
    • Please Be Patient I’m Grieving. Gary Roe.
    • Shattered: Surviving the Loss of a Child. Gary Roe.
    • From Mother to Mother On the Loss of a Child. Emily R. Long
    • Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. David Kessler.
    • Many Lives, Many Masters. Brian L. Weiss, M.D.
    • Adventures of the Soul. James Van Praagh
    • Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife – Eben Alexander
    • I Am Enough. Marissa Peer
    • Signs-The Secret Language of the Universe. Laura Lynne Jackson
    • A to Z Healing Toolbox. Susan Hannifin-MacNab
    • When Heaven Calls by Matt Fraser
    • Through A Season of Grief by Bill Dunn
    • A Place Called Heaven by Dr. Robert Jeffress
    • Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa TerKeurst
    • I Didn’t See That Coming by Lysa TerKeurst
    • I Wasn’t Ready To Say Goodbye by Brook Noel
    • Getting Past What You’ll Never Get Over by John Westfall
    • There is more to life than this by Theresa Caputo
    • The Grieving Garden by Redfern & Gilbert
    • When the Bough Breaks by Judith R. Bernstein
    • Keep Moving by Maggie Smith
    • Grieving is Loving by Joanne Cacciatore
    • Navigating Grief: A Guided Journal by Mia Roldan
    • The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller
    • Speaking in Tears (poems) by Grace Andren
    • Healing after Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman
    • The Other Side of Sadness by George A. Bonanno
    • How to Carry What Can’t be Fixed: A Journal for Grief by Megan Devine
    • It’s okay to laugh (crying is cool too) by Nora McInerny
    • No Happy Endings by Nora McInerny

    BOOKS FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN

    *sibling-loss specific

    • The Dragon Fly Story by Kelly Owen*
    • Ben’s Flying Flowers by Inger Maier*
    • Finn’s Feather by Rachel Noble and Zoey Abbott*
    • My Brother With Wings by Melissa Lopez*
    • Where do they go? By Julia Alvarez
    • The memory box by Joanna Rowland
    • Something very sad happened by Bonnie Zucker
    • A hug from heaven by Anna Whiston-Donaldson
    • Tear soup by Pat Swiebert
    • Ida, always by Caron Levis and Charles Santoso
    • The invisible string by Patrice Karst
    • Always and forever by Alan Durant
    • The littlest angel by Charles Tazewell
    • Where are you? By Laura Olivieri
    • The empty place by Roberta Temes
    • Gentle willow by Joyce Mills
    • The fox and the feather by Kendall Lanning
    • Grief is a Mess by Jackie Schuld
    • Maybe Tomorrow by Charlotte Agell (supporting a grieving friend)
    • The Grief Bubble-Journal by Kerry DeBay
    • The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld (supporting a grieving friend)
    • The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown
    • My Heart by Corinna luyken
    • The Next Place by Warren Hanson

    BLOGS

    Do you have a blog specific to losing a child to illness that you’d like us to share? Send the link to info@rettsroost.org.

    *Loss of a child to cancer

    PODCASTS

    TED TALKS/VIDEOS


    ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

    Helping Children with Grief – https://www.wgu.edu/blog/helping-children-grief2004.html

    The Last Few Days of Your Child’s Life – https://www.cclg.org.uk/bereavement/the-last-few-days-of-your-childs-life

    St. Judes, Grief After the Death of a Child – https://together.stjude.org/en-us/for-families/bereavement.html

    “Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love.
    It’s all the love you want to give but cannot.
    All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes,
    the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest.
    Grief is just love with no place to go.”
    – Jamie Anderson