Grief affects us all in different ways. Everyone’s experience of losing a loved one is different and each journey will be unique. Grief can shake everything up – your beliefs, your personality, your sense of meaning and identity and even your sense of reality.

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Bereavement is the time we spend adjusting to loss. There is no standard time limit and there is no right or wrong way to feel during the bereavement period – everyone learns to cope in their own way. The word ‘bereavement’ comes from the ancient German for ‘seize by violence’. Sometimes when someone dies, it can feel just like that – like that person has been forcibly taken away.

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Grief, although normal, can manifest in a huge range of unexpected ways. Some people get angry, some people withdraw further into themselves and some people become completely numb. Talking about the loss often allows a person to adjust to their new life with all it’s changes – Any loss has to be acknowledged for us to move forward.

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Jo Reeve is our Bereavement Support Worker.​