Understanding the Grieving Process

Grief Support

When someone you love dies, the pain can feel overwhelming and isolating. You may wonder if what you are feeling is normal, how long it will last, or whether you are grieving the “right” way. The truth is, there is no right way to grieve.

Grief Is Not Linear

You may have heard of the “five stages of grief”: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. While these describe common experiences, grief rarely moves through them in order. You might feel acceptance one morning and raw anger that evening. You might skip stages entirely or revisit them months later. All of this is normal.

Think of grief less like a staircase and more like weather. Some days are clear. Others bring sudden storms. Over time, the storms usually become less frequent and less intense, but grief itself does not have an expiration date.

Common Experiences in Grief

• Physical symptoms: fatigue, tightness in the chest, difficulty sleeping, changes in appetite, or a hollow feeling in the stomach.
• Emotional waves: sadness, anger, guilt, relief, numbness, or anxiety, sometimes all in a single day.
• Mental fog: difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, or feeling disconnected from the world around you.
• Yearning: reaching for the phone to call them, expecting them in their chair, or sensing their presence.

What Helps

Give yourself permission. Permission to cry, to laugh, to feel okay for an afternoon without guilt, and to not be okay when you are not.

Lean on others. You do not have to carry this alone. Friends, family, faith communities, and grief support groups can walk beside you. If you were connected to hospice care, bereavement support is available to you for 13 months after your loss, at no cost.

Take care of your body. Grief is physical. Gentle movement, regular meals, and rest will not fix the pain, but they give your body the strength to carry it.

Consider professional support. If grief feels unmanageable, if you cannot get through daily life, or if you have thoughts of harming yourself, please reach out. Call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) any time, or contact our bereavement team.

You Do Not Have to Walk Alone

Golden Heart Hospice provides free bereavement support to families in our community, whether or not your loved one was in our care. Support groups, one-on-one counseling, and check-in calls are available. Healing does not mean forgetting. It means learning to carry love forward.

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