Grief & Bereavement

Ultimately, no one can prepare you for your experience of grief and loss. Each person reacts uniquely to the loss of a loved one. Your grief is unique. Your bereavement is your own, and it can feel devastating. The loss of a loved one can change the landscape of your life. Even if we feel we are strong or well-prepared, the feelings of grief can be intense. These feelings of confusion, sadness, fatigue, despair, sorrow, anxiety, anger and pain are all natural. However natural the feelings are, grief is not an illness to be fixed.

You don't need solutions. You don't need to move on from your grief or have closure. You need someone to see your grief and acknowledge it with you. You need someone to hold your hands as you journey through the dark night of your soul.

Seward Area Hospice is here to companion alongside you in your uncharted journey through grief and bereavement.

Person-to-person Support

It starts with a simple phone call and we will schedule a time and place to meet that is best for you.

Resources

Written resources are available that can help you understand and follow your journey through grief and bereavement.

Grief Support Groups

These groups offer a presentation on a variety of topics followed by a time to share and listen with others who are grieving.

Details of current groups can be found on our events page.

No one ever told me grief felt so like fear...the same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing...

There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me.

I find it hard to take in what anyone says...

C.S. Lewis - A Grief Observed: a journal of thoughts and feelings after the death of his wife, Joy

Seward Area Hospice honors the companioning philosophy of grief care that facilitates the individual's authentic mourning and search for meaning.

The Tenets of Companioning the Bereaved

One.

Companioning is about being present to another person's pain;

it is not about taking away the pain.

Two.

Companioning is about going to the wilderness of the soul with another human being; it is not thinking you are responsible for finding the way out.

Three.

Companioning is about honoring the spirit;

it is not about focusing on the intellect.

Four.

Companioning is about listening to the heart;

it is not about analyzing with the head.

Five.

Companioning is about bearing witness to the struggle of others;

it is not about judging or directing those struggles.

Six.

Companioning is about walking alongside;

it is not about leading or being led.

Seven.

Companioning is about discovering the gift of sacred silence;

it is not about filling up every moment with words.

Eight.

Companioning is about being still;

it is not about frantic movement forward.

Nine.

Companioning is about respecting disorder and confusion;

it is not about imposing order and logic.

Ten.

Companioning is about learning from others;

it is not about teaching them.

Eleven.

Companioning is about compassionate curiosity;

it is not about expertise.

Tenets by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D.