Yes. Simple things. Bereavement can be life-threatening, and your support may make a vital difference in the mourner's eventual recovery. You may feel uncomfortable or awkward, or not qualified to help. Don't let those normal feelings keep you away. If you really care for your sorrowing friend or relative, and if you can enter a little into his or her grief, you are qualified to help. In fact, the simple communication of caring is probably the most important and helpful thing anyone can do. Here is a list of guidelines on how to communicate your care. 1. Get in touch. Telephone. Speak either to the mourner or to someone close and ask when you can visit and how you might help. Even if much time has passed, it's never too late to express your concern. 2. Say little on an early visit. In the initial period (before burial), your brief embrace, your press of the hand, your few words of affection and feeling may be all that is needed. 3. Avoid cliches and easy answers. "He had a good life," "He is out of pain," and "Aren't you lucky that..." are not likely to help. A simple "I'm sorry" is better. Likewise, spiritual sayings can even provoke anger unless the mourner shares the faith that is implied. In general, do not attempt to minimize the loss. 4. Be yourself. Show your own natural concern and sorrow in your own way and in your own words. 5. Keep in touch. Be available. Be there. If you are a close friend or relative, your presence might be needed from the beginning. Later, when close family may be less available, anyone's visit and phone call can be very helpful. 6. Attend to practical matters. Discover if you might be needed to answer the phone, usher in callers, prepare meals, clean the house, care for the children, etc. This kind of help lifts burdens and creates a bond. It might be needed well beyond the initial period, especially for the widowed. 7. Encourage others to help or visit. Usually one visit will overcome a friend's discomfort and allow him or her to contribute further support. You might even be able to schedule some visitors so that everyone not come all at once in beginning or fails to come at all later on. 8. Accept silence. If the mourner doesn't feel like talking, don't force conversation. Silence is better than aimless chatter. The mourner should be allowed to lead. 9. Be a good listener. When suffering spills over into words, you can do the one thing the bereaved needs above all else at the time - you can listen. Is he emotional? Accept that. Does he cry? Accept that, too. Is he angry at God? God will manage without your defending him. Accept whatever feelings are expressed, although they may temporarily ones of hurt and anger. Do not rebuke. Do not change the subject. Be as understanding as you can be. 10. Do not attempt to tell the bereaved how he feels. You can ask (without probing), but you cannot know, except as he tells you. Everyone, bereaved or not, resents an attempt to describe his feelings. To say, for example, "You must feel relieved to know he is out of pain," is presumptuous. Even to say, "I know just how you feel," is questionable. Learn from the mourner; do not instruct him. 11. Do not probe for details about the death. If the survivor offers information, listen with understanding. 12. Comfort children in the family. Do not assume that a seemingly calm child is not sorrowing. If you can, be a friend to whom feelings can be confided and with whom tears can be shed. In most cases, incidentally, children should be left in the home and not shielded from the grieving of others. 13. Avoid talking to others about trivia in the presence of the recently bereaved. Prolonged discussions of sports, weather, or stock market, for example, is resented, even if done purposely to distract the mourner. 14. Allow the "working through" of grief. Do not whisk away clothing or hide pictures. Do not criticize seemingly morbid behavior. Young people may repeatedly visit the site of the fatal accident. A widow may sleep with her husband's pajamas as a pillow. A young child may wear his dead sibling's clothing. 15. Write a letter. A sympathy card is a poor expression for your own expression. If you take time to write of your love for and memories of the one who died, your letter might be read many times and cherished, possibly into the next generation. 16. Encourage the postponement of major decisions until after the period of intense grief. Whatever can wait, should wait. 17. In time, gently draw the mourner into quiet, outside activity. He may not have the initiative to go out on his own. 18. When the mourner returns to social activity, treat him as a normal person. Avoid pity - it destroys self-respect. Simple understanding is enough. Acknowledge the loss, the change in his life, but don't dwell on it. 19. Be aware of needed progress through grief. If the mourner seems unable to resolve anger or guilt, for example, you might suggest a consultation with a clergyman or other trained counselor. A final thought: If the bereavement is especially devastating, you may have to give more time, more care, more of yourself than you imagined. And you will have to perceive the special needs of your friend and creatively attempt to meet those needs. Such commitment and effort may even save a life. (edited by David Van Alstyne) Home / Of General Interest |