Grief Room

30/08/2026

Excellent article about something we seldom talk about sensibly and in detail. Anticipatory grief is not always about dying. I experience it when I think of health declining in my daughter who has a rare disease - even more when I imagine that I won't be here to care for her. You?

Grief doesn’t always wait for death to arrive.

It can begin quietly, unfolding in layers as we anticipate loss.

When someone enters palliative care, families may begin mourning who their loved one used to be, the future they’d planned together, and relationships that start to change shape.

We first shared ‘Understanding anticipatory grief’ in November 2025, exploring insights from Chris Hall AM, CEO of Grief Australia, alongside research from Dr Priyanka Vandersman at Flinders University University.

This Grief Awareness Month, we’re revisiting the story to explore what anticipatory grief can look like and what meaningful support can look like for families and carers.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4coZDtP

24/07/2026

02/07/2026

Time I shared this beauty again. From Cherie Altea (Jar of Salt). Cherie's words are so accurate. Maybe she's a grief therapist AND an awesome artist?
For Kiwis here, Cherie's work is based (probably unintentionally) on our own Lois Tonkin's work.
Which is sometimes called the fried egg theory (you can see why in the comments).

But like Cherie's library, the idea is that the memory of our
loss stays with us forever; we just build more life around it.
I love it. It feels hopeful to me. And it certainly says it's normal to remember our loved ones forever.
What do you think?

I came across a video on BBC yesterday about an illustration of grief, how it truly changes over time and, in reality, always stays a part of us. My interpretation of that analogy and how I visualise it is like this: imagine that you are this bookshelf and grief were this thick, heavy and permanent book sitting in it.

Over time, that book doesn’t change in shape or size. It just stays there and becomes a part of you. As the days and years pass, your library grows around it as everything added to the shelf becomes another chapter and dimension in your life. The grief, even if you choose to gloss over it, is an indelible presence juxtaposed with the growing collection of things.

The spine might fade in the sunlight, yellowing pages will fall out, and its cover will definitely gather dust, but our grief is a book whose pages we can flip through and go back to when we feel compelled to. Without changing in weight, significance or meaning, it shall always and simply be another facet of our existence and one of many stories in our constantly changing life. ✍🏻

27/06/2026

If you're in the caregiving space, read Donna Thomson's wonderful piece.

Donna Thomson is Co-Director of the Family Engagement in Research Program at the CanChild Centre for Childhood-Onset Disability Research and a course facilitator with McMaster University Continuing Education, based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

14/05/2026

I can experience my own grief, I can study grief but I never assume that I will completely understand your grief. Soon I'll chat with a group who live with a rare disease in their bodies. How must that feel? How many losses must there be? I'm looking forward to this group teaching me. Meantime, here is my afternoon's study: an interview with wonderful Dr Mary- Frances O'Connor, psychologist, neuroscientist, author of the Grieving Brain and the Grieving Body...who lives with MS in her own body.

For many people, it can be difficult to talk about the feeling of loss that can accompany MS. For some, it's the loss of the way they imagined their life wou...