• Can review pleasant and unpleasant memories
• Enjoy some time alone
• Drive somewhere by yourself without crying the entire time
• Realize that painful comments made by family or friends are made in ignorance
• Reach out to help someone else in a similar situation
• Enjoy a good joke
• Eat, sleep, and exercise like you did before your loved one died
• No longer feel tired all the time
• Have developed a routine to your daily life
• Can find something to be thankful for
• Can establish new and healthy relationships
• Can organize and plan for your future
• Accept things as they are and not keep trying to return things to what they were
• Have patience with yourself when experiencing upsurges in grief
• Look forward to getting up in the morning
• Can acknowledge your new life and discover personal growth from your grief

Adapted from The Mourning Handbook A Complete Guide for the Bereaved by Helen Fitzgerald. Simon B. Schuster: 1994.

to Faith and Grief