Parent Loss

‘You Are Only as Good as the People You Surround Yourself With’

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I was desperate to be wild in grief and my coke-snorting bestie was my ticket to fun.

My Little Fictions Legacy

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Dad applied his gifts for narrative to everything from pornography to children's stories. One of those brought my son and him together after he died.

Are You There Dad? It’s Me, Samantha.

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Two years after my father's mysterious death, I'm finally embracing his life lessons as a way to live mine.

Don’t Talk About How ‘It Gets Better’

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This is what I wish my friends knew when my parents died.

Modern Loss financial literacy

5 Ways to Empower Children with Financial Responsibility

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Kids can start learning earlier than you think. The childhood lessons my parents taught me served as a powerful, lifelong legacy in the wake of their untimely and sudden deaths.

Vacant Seats

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I heard about Justice Scalia’s death at one of my last dinners with my beloved, if complicated, father. Months on, as the justice’s seat sat unfilled, so did Dad’s.

Experience Camps Modern Loss

5 Ways Grieving Kids Changed My Own Relationship with Loss

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As a volunteer counselor for Experience Camps, I was tasked with helping kids to address their grief; yet it's the kids who ended up helping me to do the same.

Closure Is a Unicorn

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My father and I struggled to understand each other. His death was what made me realize I can both love him and being angry with him.

Grief Bacon: Don’t Make Them Eat Cake

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Endless comfort food can be the opposite of comforting to someone dealing with loss. Here are 5 gifts to show you care –without the added sugar.

Loss, Squared

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One moment, I was planning a long-awaited trip to East Africa. The next, I was facing down two life-or-death decisions.

When Everything Scared Me

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After my parents died in a plane crash, there was grief, pain and loneliness. But above all, there was fear — until there wasn’t.

Older Than She Was

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I’ve officially lived longer than my mother did. Only now, on the other side, have I come to understand the life she lived.

How Much Information Is Too Much Information?

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I have so many questions about my mother's tragic accident. But will the details of her death provide me with relief or will it traumatize me all over again? Weighing the pros and cons of fact-finding.

Labor Day Love and Loss on Lake George

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I tell my son about my idyllic summers on Lake George — just not about the Labor Day tragedy that followed one of them.

Dorm-Room Mourning

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After my mom's death, my dorm room was an embarrassing place for grief.

Remembering Parents Lost to AIDS

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Hundreds of thousands have died of AIDS in this country. Now, two women are building a community of those who lost parents to the disease.

The Looming 365

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What to do on that dreaded first death anniversary? Can a terminally ill man prepare his wife for life without him? Sound advice from Meg.

Finding Support

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Looking to connect with others who have suffered a similar loss? There are support services for just about every kind of grief.

Modern Loss’ Grief Reads

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Some Modern Loss-approved essays, articles, radio shows and multimedia features taking on loss and grief of all kinds.