February 24th, 1974 If you know a child or teenager (and I hope you don’t!) who has had a parent, sibling, or other important person in their life die, consider sending a sympathy card designed specifically for them. 49 years ago today my father died of cancer. I was 14, he was 46. After my father died I received the following sympathy card from a neighbor: "Dear Mary, I am so sorry for your great loss. I always think unhappy times are the hardest for young people to bear. But I think they have a way of making one grow up with a lot more compassion. The thing that helps me feel better...

“Don’t leave me!” the little girl with pink ribbons in her hair sobbed as her aunt and young cousin said good-bye to her at the Denver airport. I was returning from a Bereavement Skills Training conference in Colorado and was sitting next to the little girl and her grandmother. The grandmother was holding her and attempting to comfort the young child as she cried. “There, there,” said the grandmother. “Aunt June would not want you to cry.” And so it begins. The “denormalizing” of a normal response to grief. When we lose someone or something we love, we grieve. Yet as a society we are so...