When Gina Poe lost her mother to breast cancer, she was distressed. Michal Poe, a 68-year-old home hospice social worker had been the rock of the family and even as her disease became more advanced, she still carried on with humor and strength. After her death, Gina discovered that her mom wasn’t just the rock of their family. Michal was also a loved and celebrated member of “virtual family” of advanced breast cancer patients from all over the world who communicates on a daily basis through a website. “A lot of them said they’d like to watch. They are wonderful people,” says Gina, a 47-year-old neuroscience professor from Ann Arbor, Mich., who is in regular email contact with some of them and has met one in person.

It’s difficult enough to know what to do when someone dies, whether it is a loved one or a family member, and this is even before bureaucratic and financial issues. Knowing the things to do when losing a loved one is important. A checklist containing crucial tips will make things easier and will help ease the load after someone dies. Knowing what to do also helps minimize the financial trauma that may occur along the way. See the full checklist here.

14Losing someone you love is like losing half of yourself. The pain and emptiness during the grieving process could go on for months or even years. No two people will respond to the same situation in exactly the same way. Working through grief is a process. You may have bad days when you think you’ll never recover from the loss and you may also think you’ll never function again without that person in your life. The good news is that you’ll recover and be fully functional if you choose to. For more helpful tips, click here.

Understanding the nature of grief is important as well as its impact on all aspects of your life – financial, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual. Learn how you can move through grief actively and make the process of grieving a healing one. As much as possible, find support and guidance in dealing with the many faces of grief. There are many things that you can do to cope with grief. To read the full article on Coping with a Father’s Death, click here.

Zoe and David Ward were married back in 2009. They have been together for several years already before. They both have children from previous relationships, but they built one big happy family. Tragedy struck when, shortly after their marriage, it was discovered that Zoe had lung cancer. She underwent treatment and they were able to control the tumour. Unfortunately,  the cancer had spread to her brain. She died, leaving her family in 2011. Now, the diary that she left behind which her family used to cope with the grief of her loss is going to be published. Here is an excerpt from an article that appeared on Yorkshire Post: “Thursday October 29 2009 – a typical diary entry from Zoe: “All I want is normality! I want to go to work, uni and juggle this with family life.” You can

The death of a pet dog, especially if the animal is kind and loving, is such a painful experience for pet owners. Losing someone you love, like your pet, is always a hurting occasion for any individual. While losing someone creates pain, did you know that death of a dog can also be a learning experience particularly for a child? Yes, you heard it right! Instead of focusing more on the pain, use the death of your dog to teach your child important lessons in life. You can tell your child that the death of your pet dog is an indication that everybody in this world passes away so we must value every moment we have with our family and friends. It would also help if you can have a simple funeral service for your dead dog so that your