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After a Teenager’s Death, Metaphors Fail

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My friend's 16-year-old daughter was hit by a car and I struggled to write about it. Because no words can truly encapsulate the zero of grief.

Does Moving Away Mitigate Grief?

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Thousands of miles now separate me from the landmarks of my memories with Dad. Here's what the distance has changed — and what it hasn't.

The Lights and Lessons of Toro Nagashi, the Japanese Candle Boat Ceremony

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I missed a lifelong friend’s funeral. But I honored him all the same.

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.

The Museum of ‘Before’

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My mother's Facebook profile has become a small souvenir of life (and her) before she got sick.

The Lie We Tell Ourselves About Mental Health

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My mom's suicide taught me that there is no clear line dividing those who are of sound mind from those who are not.

Everything I Didn’t Want to Know About Miscarriages*

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My bold foray into documenting my loss in full color.

That Would Have Been a Great Story

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My high school boyfriend and I lost our respective spouses just months apart — and reconnected over our grief. I would like to be able to say that we fell back in love and lived happily ever after. Something else unfolded.

Bring Soup, Not Salad

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And other rules for feeding mourners from a pair of foodies who’ve been there.

Losing My Son’s ‘First Mommy’

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When the troubled woman who gave birth to my little boy died at age 31, I realized just how much I’d been riding on her imagined recovery.

Remembering Grandma as She Really Was

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Some guidelines for memorializing someone at the end of a long and debilitating illness

Weaver Modern Loss

My Dad Died From Cancer — So I Made a Movie About It

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Thing is, expressing loss through art didn't heal my wound. It just exposed it to everyone, in feature-length format.

Sabin Modern Loss

My Summer of Few Words

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In the quiet of my solitude after loss and abuse, I noticed a voice I hadn't heard before -- mine.

Dad’s Dead. LOL?

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I used to joke that I wanted to die before my dad. The order didn't work out -- but I found I could still laugh.

Making My Dad A Searchable Term

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My dad died before the Internet. When I put his name out into the digital world, I couldn't have anticipated what would come back to me.

Gonzalez Modern Loss

In Mourning, with Broadway and Carne Guisada

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How musicals like "In the Heights" helped after losing my abuela.

Maia drawings Modern Loss

Mentee, Interrupted

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Maia and I only spent a few minutes together. It was only after her death that I finally got to know her.

The Sitcom Widow

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Sizing myself up to DJ Tanner, Carol Brady and Nancy Botwin

Loss Squared In the City of Love

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After my mother's death, I departed for Paris with her ashes -- the same week of the tragic terror attacks.

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