Author Jonathan Santlofer Reflects on Grief

Before The Widower’s Notebook became an eloquent and poignant memoir, it was six composition-style notebooks filled by the novelist and artist Jonathan Santlofer in a nightly practice which he says “kept him grounded” at a time when he felt wholly “dis… Continue reading

The Funeral Dress Still in the Back of Your Closet

Dressing for important occasions can be stress-inducing, but deciding what to wear to a funeral can be doubly fraught. Dealing with grief and feeling overwhelmed, now you must find something suitable to wear, which can be especially hard if you’ve been… Continue reading

Next Avenue Editors’ Picks of 2018

We published hundreds and hundreds of stories this year in the areas of health, money, work and purpose, living, caregiving and technology — all with the mission of serving older adults through the power of public media. Among our four editors, they ch… Continue reading

Loss and Grief in an Increasingly Secular World

Elaine Pagels, 75, has lived through the best and the worst of times. She is the highly acclaimed author of a long list of scholarly, yet accessible, bestselling books, most notably The Gnostic Gospels; a renowned professor of religious history at Prin… Continue reading

The Second Year After a Loved One’s Death

For more than 25 years, I served as a psychology professor and researched grief and bereavement. I consulted and taught individuals, couples and families to meet the demands that chronic illness exacts, to build safety nets and resilience in the presen… Continue reading

Coping With Grief After the Pittsburgh Tragedy

On Saturday, Oct. 27, a hate-spewing 46-year-old man stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue and made a cruel mockery of its very name — the Tree of Life — by unleashing a volley of gunfire that extinguished 11 lives. The savage attack, the third on a house of … Continue reading

Anxiety Is Another Stage of Grief

(This article is excerpted from Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief by Claire Bidwell Smith.) What is anxiety? Where does it come from, and how can you gain control over it? And why is it so frequently spurred by the loss of a loved one? These are ofte… Continue reading

The Raw Feeling of Losing a Fiftysomething Friend

My husband’s friend died last week. He was 57. That’s how old my husband is. His friend was a great guy, married, a father of three, always kind and generous, thoughtful and considerate. We both liked him a lot. He developed a chronic form of cancer ab… Continue reading