Grief & Loss

How does the heart understand grief when it is broken by the death of a loved one? To survive and live forward, those who grieve must find answers. Beyond the Broken Heart is an eight-week support and ministry program for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Author Julie Yarbrough chronicles her personal experience combined with a deep love of Scripture and years of leading grief support groups to create an authentic and deeply personal exploration of the grief journey.

The Small Group DVD contains eight video segments and two bonus sessions featuring the author and a licensed professional counselor. Each segment provides an introduction to the topic for the week while helping participants relate to the life experiences and stories of others who are familiar with the pain of loss and grief.

"Julie Yarbrough has walked through the valley of the shadow of death and experienced the pain and anguish of great grief, and she knows firsthand the comfort and strength that only God can provide. I commend this remarkable grief ministry program to you highly." --James W. Moore, Pastor in Residence, Highland Park United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas

"With wisdom informed by her own experience and a warm regard for those who grieve, Julie Yarbrough guides the brokenhearted on an honest journey toward acceptance and hope. A refreshingly excellent resource for grief support." --Stephan Bauman, Senior Minister, Christ Church New York City

"Julie Yarbrough weaves understanding, care, and comfort together in such a way that the seemingly intolerable becomes tolerable, one breath at a time. This resource provides everything you need to promote, establish, and conduct grief groups throughout the year." --Judith Bone, Director of Adult Discipleship, Brentwood United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tennessee

Many people shy away from those who have terminal illnesses or have suffered other tragedies or losses, because they do not know what to do or to say. They want to be helpful, to show their concern, but they feel awkward and afraid their actions or words will be inappropriate. Call Me If You Need Anything...and Other Things Not to Say can help even the most unsure provide care and comfort to others during the challenging times of their lives. With insights from personal experience, Cathy Peterson turns good intentions into real help and encouragement for the patient and family. She provides sensible advice, not philosophical rhetoric, on everything from sending cards to bringing food, to spending time, to sharing condolences. Peterson even includes guidance on what not to do or say. Call Me If You Need Anything...and Other Things Not to Say is straightforward guidance on how to show that you really do care.

Vincent van Gogh's last words resonate with many grievers this holiday season: 'La tristesse durea--the sadness will never go away.'No, it will not go away. But it will change.Grief can be overwhelming, and it is especially intense during the holidays--those weeks that have always been spent in preparation and anticipation with a loved one who has been lost. While the world seems to be moving forward and celebrating life, grievers face a season of darkness and loss.For you--or as gift for someone you know who is grieving--Harold Ivan Smith guides the reader beyond the darkness with illustrations and insights that emphasize God's ability to transform the holidays into a time of grace and healing.

In this moving and compassionate classic--now updated with new material from the authors--hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years' experience tending the terminally ill.

Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts--of wisdom, faith, and love--that the dying leave for the living to share.

Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death, Final Gifts shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.

Following the death of her father, journalist and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann sets out to examine what it means to die well in the United States.

When Ann Neumann's father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, she left her job and moved back to her hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She became his full-time caregiver--cooking, cleaning, and administering medications. When her father died, she was undone by the experience, by grief and the visceral quality of dying. Neumann struggled to put her life back in order and found herself haunted by a question: Was her father's death a good death?

The way we talk about dying and the way we actually die are two very different things, she discovered, and many of us are shielded from what death actually looks like. To gain a better understanding, Neumann became a hospice volunteer and set out to discover what a good death is today. She attended conferences, academic lectures, and grief sessions in church basements. She went to Montana to talk with the attorney who successfully argued for the legalization of aid in dying, and to Scranton, Pennsylvania, to listen to "pro-life" groups who believe the removal of feeding tubes from some patients is tantamount to murder. Above all, she listened to the stories of those who were close to death.

What Neumann found is that death in contemporary America is much more complicated than we think. Medical technologies and increased life expectancies have changed the very definition of medical death. And although death is our common fate, it is also a divisive issue that we all experience differently. What constitutes a good death is unique to each of us, depending on our age, race, economic status, culture, and beliefs. What's more, differing concepts of choice, autonomy, and consent make death a contested landscape, governed by social, medical, legal, and religious systems.

In these pages, Neumann brings us intimate portraits of the nurses, patients, bishops, bioethicists, and activists who are shaping the way we die. The Good Death presents a fearless examination of how we approach death, and how those of us close to dying loved ones live in death's wake.

From that beginning of this work, the author offers a path for those who grieve, whether the loss is from a physical death, a looming divorce, declining health, bankruptcy, or some other wound. Each of the 10 meditations in this journal corresponds to a stage of grief as outlined in Granger Westberg's classic book "Good Grief."

"In A Grief Received, JL Gerhardt offers a personal, authentic, and practical approach to weathering grief with hope. Writing with deep insight, she draws on the loss of her younger brother when she was 21 and other personal experiences of grief. Through nine practices grieving people can adopt to position themselves to receive the gifts of grief, Gerhardt sheds light on a path to personal transformation. Chapters include personal reflection questions and suggested resources. Readers will feel comforted, directed, and inspired to seek God and God's shaping in their grief."--Publisher's website.

Because our relationships with our animal companions are unlike human relationships, the death of a pet is like no other loss that we will experience. In this book, Betty J. Carmack draws on the wisdom of Ecclesiastes, her own experience, and interviews with dozens of pet lovers to guide the reader through the initial loss of a pet to the dawning of new hope and reassurance.

There is no sure route through grieving. Jerusha McCormack provides instead a series of signposts by which we may find our own path to a new life. "We are all amateurs at grief," she writes, "it comes to us all; we must all go through it. To treat grief as a problem to be fixed, or (worse still) to medicalize it, is to rob us of the extraordinary privilege of encountering this experience on our terms: for each of us has our own way of grieving, and each of us has something special to learn from the process."

This heartfelt manual is an indispensable and easily referenced resource for grieving grandparents, offering them a way forward after the death of a grandchild. Whether they were close to their grandchild and keenly feeling his or her absence, or even if they were not close to the child and are mourning the loss of a relationship they'll never have, this book offers grandparents compassionate comfort and practical ideas for their journey through grief, addressing as well the unique pain of watching their children mourn the loss of their child. The ideas offered in the book clarify the basic principles of grief and mourning and offer immediate suggestions for things grandparents can do to embrace their grief, honor and remember their grandchild, and begin to heal.

Offers 100 practical, here-and-now suggestions for helping widowers or widows mourn well so they can go on to live well and love well again. Whether your spouse died recently or long ago, you will find comfort and healing in this compassionate book.

The classic guide for dealing with grief and loss

For those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, here are thoughtful words to strengthen, inspire and comfort.

The Healing Light is the classic book on healing in America by one of our most renowned spiritual writiers. Filled with practical advice, it is dedicated to helping people everywhere tap the creative energy that God offers to people of faith.

Practical methods for healing after the loss of a member of the military

When a loved one is killed in the line of duty, this book affirms that survivors' grief is shaped by the unique circumstances of the death. Because military deaths are almost always sudden and violent, the traumatic nature of the loss creates a two-part grief--one focused on the manner in which the person died, the other focused on the long-term repercussions of life without this special person. This guide acknowledges the unique mixture of sadness, pride, anger, and blame that often characterizes grief after a military death, including in the event of a military suicide, and offers ideas for constructively expressing thoughts and feelings. Anyone whose life has been touched by a military death will find compassionate understanding and healing guidance in the pages of this handbook.

Beloved grief educator Dr. Alan Wolfelt compassionately explores the common feelings of shock, anger, guilt, and sadness that accompany a stillborn child, offering suggestions for expressing feelings, remembering the child, and healing as a family. Ideas to help each unique person--mother, father, grandparent, sibling, friend--are included, as are thoughts from families who experienced a stillbirth. This new addition to Dr. Wolfelt's popular series is a healing companion to families when they need it most.

How does the heart understand grief when it is broken by the death of a husband or wife? To survive and live forward, those who grieve must find answers. Inside the Broken Heart is for anyone who has ever grieved the death of a spouse and asked 'why?' The book meets the reader at a spiritual place reserved specifically for widows and widowers. Author Julie Yarbrough survived the sudden and untimely death of her beloved husband, a prominent United Methodist minister. As a lay grief facilitator, she believes that those who seek comfort and inspiration in grief best identify with an authentic point of view. We grieve because we love, in direct proportion to the depth of our love. Spousal love is a sacred gift ordained by God, the death of husband or wife unlike any other experience of loss. The marriage vow moment 'until death do us part' forever changes those who survive. Grief cannot be understood until it is experienced. Grief is not a crisis of faith, it is a crisis of the heart.

Inside the Broken Heart uses topical references from the Bible to illuminate the unfamiliar emotions and questions of grief for the surviving spouse. Because we must grieve in order to live, the book explains spiritual and practical issues of grief and suggests specific coping strategies for widows and widowers. As journey through 'the valley of the shadow of death, ' Inside the Broken Heart guides the way back to fullness of life. Through rediscovery of hope, pain and sorrow are vanquished, death is rendered powerless, and grief is no more. We are healed by God's triumphant adequacy, 'He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds' (Psalm 147:3).


"Julie Yarbrough has walked through the valley of the shadow of death and experienced the pain and anguish of great grief, and she knows firsthand the comfort and strength that only God can provide. I commend this remarkable grief ministry program to you highly."

James W. Moore, Pastor in Residence, Highland Park United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas

"With wisdom informed by her own experience and a warm regard for those who grieve, Julie Yarbrough guides the brokenhearted on an honest journey toward acceptance and hope. A refreshingly excellent resource for grief support."

Stephan Bauman, Senior Minister, Christ Church New York City

"Julie Yarbrough weaves understanding, care, and comfort together in such a way that the seemingly intolerable becomes tolerable, one breath at a time. This resource provides everything you need to promote, establish, and conduct grief groups throughout the year."

Judith Bone, Director of Adult Discipleship, Brentwood United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tennessee

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." --Randy Pausch

On the morning of February 6, 1991, Dennis Apple discovered the lifeless body of his son on their family room couch. Eighteen-year-old Denny had died without warning from what was later explained as complications due to Mono. Sixteen years later, Dennis still struggles with living in a world without his son.Life After the Death of My Son shares a glimpse of the unspeakable pain, helplessness, frustration, and eventual healing that Dennis and his wife, Buelah, have experienced since losing their son. Using excerpts from his journal--which he began the day after Denny died--Dennis explores the dark, lonely road of grieving for a child. He discloses his anger and disappointment with God, discusses his frustrations with friends and family, and shares how he's dealt with the grief attacks, which continue to sneak up and surprise him. His painful, yet promising story offers comfort and connection to those walking similar paths. With understanding and compassion, Dennis offers grieving parents insight from 10 lessons he's learned--and continues to learn. His gentle words and honest understanding will guide those with grieving hearts on their difficult journey; giving them hope; helping them to discover ways in which God is able to continue the life of the child they loved.

For times that call for contemplation or prayer, for times of difficulty or worry, for times of joy and happiness, for special occasions or special events, these booklets can help you find the right words, the meaningful thought, the comforting reflection. For the cost of a greeting card, each Looking Up booklet provides 24 pages of insight, wisdom, meditation, direction, comfort, and prayer. Useful for pastors and caregivers, or from friend to friend, Looking Up conveys caring in exceptional ways.

By exploring the ethics of resisting and accepting death from a Christian perspective, Nancy Duff encourages Christians to talk about death in the context of Christian faith. Making Faithful Decisions at the End of Life helps readers use biblical and theological perspectives regarding death to inform end-of-life decisions, consider where they stand on withdrawing life support and supporting death with dignity laws, and take steps in planning for their own future.

A picture book to guide the reader through different emotions and reactions related to grieving.

The text and illustrations of this lushly colored picture book guide the reader through different emotions and reactions related to grieving, including shock, tears, anger, and hope. My Favorite Color is Blue. Sometimes. is a children's picture book by design, but accessible to people of all ages.

Following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, author Roger Hutchison had the privilege of painting with children who had witnessed this tragic event. The experience affected him profoundly and convinced him of a vocation to serve those who grieve with his writing and art.

No One Has to Die Alone offers meaningful insights and practical tools to rise above fear and make a difference in how we face the transition of death, dying, and bereavement.

Caring for a terminally ill loved one can be the single biggest challenge of your life. Drawing from her experience sitting with over 500 people as they died and caring for her own terminally ill father, Dr. Lani Leary gently guides caregivers, family, and friends through the difficult transitions of illness, death, and bereavement.

No One Has to Die Alone offers the practical skills, vocabulary, and insights needed to truly address the needs of a dying loved one while caring for yourself through the process. Dr. Leary shows both patient and caregiver how to rise above feelings of fear and isolation to find peace and meaning in each person's unique end-of-life experience.

Whether used as a reference book to address a particular challenge or read from start to finish, this is a must-read for anyone facing death or the loss of a loved one. You'll learn:

- how to listen to and support a loved one's needs;

- what to expect as a loved one declines and the different grieving processes and tasks;

- the key to supporting a grieving child;

- what resources are available for patients and caregivers;

- the lessons of near-death experiences and the value of after-death communications.