Spending time with a bereaved person can be a great source of comfort. The simple fact of your presence may be enough to help. However, it is just as important to give the bereaved person space to be alone if they desire. It is also important that a bereaved person is able to talk to and cry with someone without being told to ‘pull it together.’ People sometimes find it hard to understand why the bereaved often talk and become distressed about the same feelings and events over and over again. But this is an important part of the healing process that should be encouraged.

The key to rebuilding a life after dealing with a death is to realise that life will never be as it was before. There has been an irrevocable change, and the journey through grief engendered by that loss will end in adapting to the change, not in trying to pretend that the change has not happened.