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The Ones Who Know Us Best: Sibling Losses

When a sibling dies, it's not just the physical separation. It's also the removal of daily moments. The calls, texts, laughs, and reassurances go away. It’s the conversations that only your sibling would understand, that are lost. For adults, losing a sibling means losing a retirement buddy, support taking care of aging parents, and the ability to share childhood memories. For children and adolescents, losing a sibling young can create losing a playmate and someone to read stories and share childhood with.

Close up of an exhausted caregiver resting their face in their hands, representing caregiving burnout and cancer loss.

Grief6 min read

Grieving a cancer loss when you are burned out from caregiving

You did everything. The appointments. The medications. The middle-of-the-night wake-ups.

Bereavement8 min read

Anticipatory grief: When you grieve someone who is still alive

We're often taught that grief is something that happens after our loved one takes their last breath.

3 min read

How a physician associate used text messaging to get support for grief and burnout

Tracey Piparo is a Physician Associate (PA) with RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey. She's one of only 200 PAs in the US who specializes in palliative care. Tracey was happy to discover support from Help Texts in 2023, an innovative text-based service offering accessible, confidential, and convenient support via text message. "I believe that there is awesomeness in the simplicity of texts," she says. "As a PA with not only a demanding career but a hectic home life, I appreciate the ability to receive the info when I am able and also appreciate the succinct suggestions that arrive at just the right time."

Grief9 min read

Grief after a drug or alcohol related death

If you have lost someone to substance use, you are carrying something that few people fully understand. The grief is real and immense.

A sample text message reading "Hi, Abby. Today would have been Jason's birthday. Take a minute to send a favorite memory or story to Julie. She'll appreciate hearing a happy story, and it will be good for you too."

Death5 min read

Making difficult conversations easier: text messages and card games that help us talk about death

Whether it’s a card game or text messages, I love that there are new ways to take the awkwardness out of the moments in our lives when we most need each other.

Illustration of a teen with long dark hair holding a phone showing a speech bubble, with the title "3 Ways to Support a Teen Who's Grieving"

Grief Coach3 min read

Three ways to support a teen who is grieving, in partnership with the Dougy Center for Grieving Children and Families

Have you ever struggled to know what to say to a teen or young adult grieving the death of a loved one? Try these three tips from Dougy Center and Grief Coach.

Bereavement4 min read

We’ve removed the last hurdle to grief support: Help Texts now has "Pay-As-You-Go Pricing"

Since our launch in 2018, Help Texts has been breaking down the barriers to grief support.

An adult woman looking thoughtfully out the window with a coffee, navigating the grief of losing her mom as an adult.

Grief4 min read

Losing your mom as an adult

Grief looks different for everyone. There is no right way to grieve, and no timeline you need to keep.

Hospice3 min read

Help Texts now offers bereavement support to Canadian hospices

For more than five years, Help Texts has been working with hospices across the US to provide compassionate, clinically sound support to bereaved families. Now this support is available in Canada, and leaders at hospices including Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and Vancouver Hospice Society have adopted Help Texts as a new way to provide year-long support to the families in their care.

Grief Coach social graphic over a rocky coastline: "We get it. Grief is scary. Sometimes we worry so much that we
end up saying nothing at all."

Grief8 min read

How I learned to help the grieving one text message at a time

On my flight home from my friend's funeral, I thought about the fear and discomfort that had kept people from reaching out when my husband died a decade earlier. Their distance had hurt me, but I now knew that it had hurt them too. For over a decade, people I cared very much about had been carrying around guilt and shame. It all seemed so unnecessary. I knew we could do better.

College students smiling while sitting on a bench

Grief Support7 min read

Why does social support drop off when you need it most?

The people in your life didn't stop caring. Here's why social support drops off after a loss, and what you can do when the silence starts to hurt.

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