Resources:
Grieving Through the Holidays

If you’ve lost a loved one, either recently, several months ago or even a few years ago, Community Hospice can help you and your family get through the holidays.

Families experiencing or remembering the loss of a loved one at the holidays often find themselves torn between the need to grieve and the pressure to get into the spirit of the holiday season.

As an expert in end-of-life care, Community Hospice of Northeast Florida understands grief and offers these practical steps to help grieving families restore a sense of hope during the upcoming holiday season:

• When planning special occasions, keep expectations low – for yourself and of others — to lessen the chance for disappointment.

• Take time for yourself and for relaxation and remembrance.

• Be patient with yourself and others.

• Remove as many stresses from your holidays as you can.

• Feel free to change holiday traditions.

• Allow others to support and help you.

Here are some ways to include memories of your loved one in this year’s traditions:

• Serve that person’s favorite food or holiday dish.

• Offer a toast at the start of a family meal.

• Listen to that person’s favorite music.

• Plant a tree.

• Hang a stocking for the deceased and allow family members and friends to place notes to or about the deceased in the stocking. These notes can be read and shared when gifts are opened.

Community Hospice experts note that New Year’s Day can also be difficult for grievers because reflecting on the previous year reminds them of their loss.  By looking ahead, we can try to focus on the things we’re grateful for, including the relationships we have with our deceased loved ones.

Community Hospice’s licensed counselors offer individual and family grief counseling for adults and children. Therapeutic support groups are offered several times during the year. Grieving children can attend Community Hospice’s Camp Healing Powers, a weekend bereavement camp.

For more information about Community Hospice bereavement services, please call 904.407.7001 or 800.274.6614 toll-free.

Learn more:

• Information you can request to have mailed to you at no charge
• Links to other helpful web sites
• Other resources available to you right here in Northeast Florida
• Suggested reading: Adapted from the Life's End Institute
• Grieving through the holidays

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Call 904.268.5200 for general information or 904.596.6500 for referral and admissions information.
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