Slate.com
By Meghan O’Rourke and Leeat Granek
August 4, 2011
Condolence notes? Casseroles? What our grief survey revealed.
The most surprising aspect of the results is how basic the expressed needs were, and yet how profoundly unmet many of these needs went. Asked what would have helped them with their grief, the survey-takers talked again and again about acknowledgement of their grief …… What they didn’t want was to be offered false comfort in the form of empty platitudes.
Yet as American culture has become divorced from death and dying, we no longer know how to address the most rudimentary aspects of another’s loss – what to say, when to say it, how to say it. Disconcerted by discomfort, friends or colleagues are all too likely to disappear or turn the conversation to small talk in the aftermath of a loss, not knowing what to say.
Read the full article at Slate.com
Thanks to the Living With Dying Blog (Death With Dignity National Center) for altering us to this article.
RELATED LINKS
What Is Grief Actually Like? (Part 1 – March 24, 2011)
What Is Grief Actually Like? (Part 2 – April 28, 2011)
