Reading Through Grief
Books to bring along when navigating loss There it was on my computer screen. A billboard for sadness. For anyone else it was just the “last opened date” on a story draft, this very story in fact, but for me it was a relic from the “before” time. Before the doctors told us my father’s […]
My Coping Superpower: Finding Humor in the Darkness
There’s Nothing Funny About Illness, Grief, or Loss. Except the Parts That Are. I’m in Philly FaceTiming with my sister Sue in Florida. She’s at Memory Care packing up our mother’s belongings and looking for an outfit to bury her in. This is no small task, given the devolution of her wardrobe from cute Chico’s […]
When Grief Becomes Content
Mourning In the Digital Age I became a widow nearly 12 years ago. Hours after my husband died, I posted a photo of him on social media. In lieu of answering the many heartfelt calls, texts, and emails my daughter and I received, that post was the easiest way for me to share the hardest […]
The Friendship Breakups No One Talks About
Your stories of betrayal, bravery, and letting go—because friendship endings deserve airtime too. We know how to mourn a bad romance. There are endless quizzes, support groups, and therapy. But when a friendship ends—quietly, painfully, sometimes without warning—where do we put that grief? Friendship splits can hit even harder than romantic breakups. After all, your […]
She Didn’t Just Move to Paradise. She Bottled It.
Beauty, Scent, and the Courage to Start Over When Isabelle Ramsay-Brackstone lost her husband, she didn’t flee Bermuda—she stayed, turned grief into craft, and built a perfumery that captures the scent of a life fully lived. Standing in Isabelle Ramsay-Brackstone’s tropical walled garden, surrounded by oleander, passion flower, jasmine, and more, it was easy to […]
What Hollywood Still Gets Wrong About Grief
Death is not a plot twist. In real life, it’s something else entirely: messy, and grief is always with you. Mr. Big died on a Peloton. Bambi’s mom got shot in the snow. And Fleabag? She never got over the loss of her best friend, Boo—can you blame her? My husband, Joel, died in real […]
Mother’s Day Messages: What Our Readers Had to Say
Image: REDA/Getty/SFD Media LLC Mother’s Day is one of those holidays that carries both warmth and weight, and we’re sharing Mother’s Day messages from our readers. Though it’s simple in concept, celebrate moms, it’s often complex in reality. Not everyone can or wants to participate. For some, the day is mom-affirming. For others, it surfaces […]
When a Close Friend Dies: The Lessons and Love Left Behind
When I learned that Sara had a career in the optical industry, it made perfect sense. She noticed everything. Her eye for detail extended beyond lenses and frames. She had a gift for truly seeing people—their hidden strengths, their fears, their untapped potential. That was one of her superpowers. The other, it turned out, was […]
A Friendship Breakup That Began the Day We Met
Signs It’s Time to End a Friendship Five years ago, on one of our weekly hikes, I was eager to tell my close friend Annie* that my agent had found a publisher for my memoir. My first book was getting published—it was cause for celebration! But her reaction deflated me. “Memoir is a genre that’s […]
