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HELP WITH GRIEVING

All of the below publications are available at Puerta Del Cielo®.  Please don't hesitate to request any information that you might find helpful to your personal grieving process.

Grief and the Holidays

Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, New Year's, birthdays, and anniversaries; for most people, just thinking about these special days spent with family and friends can bring back a flood of happy memories. However, for others, happy memories are dulled by the pain and sorrow of experiencing the holidays without a loved one who has died.

Plan Ahead

Many people who are grieving feel they would like to just go to sleep and wake up when the holidays are over. Hiding from the holidays should not be an option. So, in dealing with them, do it proactively and plan ahead.

Accept your limitations

The number of decisions you have to make during the holidays along with the family and social pressure that accompanies them can be overwhelming. Do not let these decisions make you feel worse. Choose a few to deal with at a time so as not to overwhelm yourself.

Taking care of yourself

Take care of yourself physically. A grieving body is more susceptible to illness and needs proper nourishment and rest. Exercise, eat a properly balanced diet, and get adequate rest.

Be prepared

Expect some physical and emotional responses to your loss. Although everyone's grief is different there are some responses that are commonly experienced by most bereaved people.

For additional information request Guide Lines: Grief and the Holidays from Puerta Del Cielo®

Foreword

Over the past several years, many volumes have been published on the subject of grief and grief therapy. The time immediately following the death of a loved one and extending over a period of several weeks or even months has proven to be one of the most difficult to cope with in one's lifetime. The author's intention with "Life Beyond Loss" was to develop a condensed therapeutic guide identifying the problem areas of grief recovery and to offer constructive suggestions using personal experiences others have encountered. It is hoped that the thoughts presented will offer the reader a source of comfort and a better understanding of "Life Beyond Loss."

When Someone We Love Dies

Death is the name given to a very confusing part of life. We know that plants die in Winter. We know that animals die, too. We can understand that this is the way nature works. But it is much, much harder to understand why people die, especially someone we love.
A loved one's death may make us feel terribly sad, or afraid, or even angry. But learning about this part of life can help us feel much better. This small book answers the questions that most children ask about death.

Introduction

If you are concerned about discussing death with your children you're not alone. Many of us hesitate to talk about death, particularly with youngsters. But death is an inescapable fact of life. We must deal with it and so must our children; if we are to help them we must let them know it's okay to talk about it.

By talking to our children about death we may discover what they know and do not know- if they have misconceptions, fears or worries. We can then help them by providing needed information, comfort and understanding. Talking does not solve all problems, but without talking we are even more limited in our ability to help.

What we say about death to our children, or when we say it, will depend on their ages and experiences. It will also depend on our own experiences, beliefs, feelings and the situations we find ourselves in, for each situation we face is somewhat different. Some discussions about death may be stimulated by a news report or a television program and take place in a relatively unemotional atmosphere; other talks may result from a family crisis and be charged with emotions.

This booklet cannot possibly deal with every situation. It does provide some general information which may be helpful- information which may be adapted to meet individual needs.

For families and relatives, the period of time between a death and the final disposition is a period of considerable confusion.

Few people have ever had the personal experience to know exactly what has to be done at a time like this. It is for this reason that your funeral director stands willing to grant you all the necessary counsel and guidance needed during the next few days.

It is the wish in presenting you with Guidelines that is might offer some assistance during this period of uncertainty.

The purpose of this book is to provide informative guidelines and basic factors to be considered in the making of funeral arrangements. Expressed thoughts found in the succeeding pages are derived from extensive physiological studies of grief therapy, and are in no way meant to influence a family's personal request.