Grief: How do you heal if multiple deaths occur over a short time period?

A friend experienced the death of her son-in-law, and then a week later her mother-in-law died. A month later, her Dad died. My heart goes out to her and her family.

Her grief needed and still needs to be validated and normalized. Grieving for one person and then experiencing additional deaths during that initial grief period can hamper the healing process. In addition, each subsequent death can spark previous grief reactions. The roller coaster of emotions can move at a fast and furious pace.


We have learned from working with older adults who frequently experience multiple deaths in the course of a year that it is often helpful to compartmentalize the deaths. You may not know which person to grieve for first. You may you feel guilt over missing one person more than another. Take the time to grieve each death. Each person that died was a unique person and your relationship with that person had its own distinctive qualities. To read more ...