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illustration: Jun Cen For HuffPost

A no-BS guide to loss. Grief is profoundly personal and looks different on everyone, but there is hope to be found. Let these expert tips and first-person experiences guide you along your own path.

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READ MORE FROM THE ARCHIVES

Grief is a sequel to love. Here’s how I make it more bearable for my community.
"When 'Gilmore Girls' premiered, I reveled in the fact that I already had the Lorelai to my Rory."
Recipes and rituals vary, but the instinct to console the grieving with food is one that transcends culture, religion, language and borders.
"Shame swept through my body and settled in my chest. ... I screwed up. Me of all people. I knew better."
After my mother was diagnosed with cancer, I found solace in memoirs and fiction by Joan Didion, C.S. Lewis and more.
"They say that time heals all wounds. The person who came up with that one must have been a raging optimist."
"The women on the app understood my grief and bewilderment better than my own very supportive partner, because they’d been through it or something like it."
"I was clinging tightly to the life I had before. I wanted ― and thought I needed ― everything to stay the same, because if it did, then Simon wouldn’t be dead."
"There was no way for me to see the possibility of healing on the day the sheriff and coroner pounded on my front door."
"In my mind, it’s hard to know what to save, what to delete and what is gone forever. I hoard digital memories hoping they will safeguard me from future loss."
"They say you never forget your first love. In my case, Diane was the only girl I ever loved."
Words matter when you're talking to someone who is grieving a death by suicide.