Jamestown Area Grief Support Team (JAGST), a nonprofit that aims to offer support to those who are going through grief, is hosting a widows’ retreat on October 9-11, 2015 at Maryvale Retreat Center in Valley City. The event aims to allow women who have lost their partners to connect with others who have gone through the same experience. It also provides an opportunity for them to immerse in healing with no distractions. Click here to learn more about this event.

Romantic partners should be there for one another through thick and thin, but when one turns to the other for support after the loss of a loved one, the latter may become overwhelmed by the responsibility of helping his special someone cope and recover. Here are some things that all partners should remember in times of their loved ones’ grief: Let them know that it is safe to cry and express their emotions in your presence. Become their source of honesty amidst the well-intentioned but ineffectual sympathy. Give them room to experience mourning in their own personal way. Don’t feel like you have to fill the silence while your significant other grieves. Help in planning the funeral as well as in other tasks. Click here to read more.

Learning that your parent is terminally ill can place you in an emotional roller coaster. At one point, you are completely devastated by the fact that he or she won’t be with you for very long, at another, you may be thankful that, unlike a sudden death, you are still allowed time to be with the person. Here are tips to cope with a terminally ill parent: Seek out help and talk to someone who has gone through a similar experience. Help kids cope my making positive memories while their grandparents still live. See this as an opportunity to say goodbye properly. Educate yourself on the illness so you know what to expect. Research hospice care options. Keep in mind that your parent needs emotional support, too. To learn more, click here.

Some individuals are pressured by people around them, or even by themselves, to repress their emotions and keep themselves from crying. However, years of research have actually found that crying does not only have a cathartic effect, but can also strengthen bonds between people. Researchers also identified certain conditions that can make crying improve emotional health. This includes having a shoulder to cry on, crying after the problem has been solved, and doing so in an appropriate place. Click here to learn more.

Camp Angels, an overnight camp for 6- to 16-year-olds is currently accepting applicants. Now on its 11th year, the said event aims to help children learn to cope with the loss of a loved one. This years camp will be held on September 18 to 20 at the YMCA’s Camp Tecumseh. Stephanie Guinn, camp director, says that the most important part of the event is that the kids get to be with other kids who’ve shared such a loss. “They need to know they’re not the only kid who has to cope with such a loss.” To learn more, click here.

When a loved one passes away, one of the major undertakings that his closest relatives has to do is to pack up his home. Psychologist Meredith Fuller says that when it comes to doing this, everyone has to find the ritual with which they are most comfortable. In particular, while there are some who prefer to wait for several months before finally getting to the task, others simply cannot bear seeing to all the things that constantly remind them of the deceased. Click here to learn more.

Not a lot of things can be greater than a mother’s love for her children. Not everyone, therefore, will be able to relate to the former’s grief when her son or daughter passes away. No matter how much any family member or friend tries to think on her shoes, only she and mothers just like herself can truly fathom the emotional turmoil of losing a child. Joining a support group of mothers who have gone through the same experience may be able to help a woman better cope with the loss of a child. To learn more, click here.