Dealing with a Grieving Family

When you have a colleague who has lost an immediate family member, it is sometimes confusing on how you should conduct yourself during this situation. It’s hard to find the right things to say and you really do not know what advice to give to your grieving friend and his family.

For those who are asking about this, we have consulted numerous funeral directors and doctors about the situation and their explanation is that grieving and bereavement is a normal reaction to death and friends or family must simply let this phenomenon take its course naturally.

Of course, you can opt to utter encouraging words or extend your helping hands in doing preparations in the funeral homes for the memorial service and the burial of the deceased.

Here are some good pieces of advice that you can internalize when dealing with friends and families who are grieving for the loss of a loved one:

• Your presence means a lot. By just being there and giving your shoulder for them to cry on would mean a lot to the grieving party. Sometimes, you really do not have to say anything to alleviate the sadness that they are feeling because of the loss. You just have to support them emotionally and hope for the best.

 

• Understand that there is no specific way to grieve. Some people judge other fellows because of how they are handling the death of a husband, a wife or a sibling. Actually, there are no rules to follow in grieving. Grief is not predictable and it is different from one case to another. So, when talking to a grieving friend avoid telling him what are the things to be done and those that are to be avoided.  

 

• Help them vent out their feelings. If you try to open up to them and they start talking about the death of their loved one, it is a positive sign of progress. So, you need to find ways on how they can vent out these deep-seated feelings. You can teach them how to write eulogy so that they can put into writing all the good memories that they had with the deceased person.