Community blog: Thoughts, feelings and reflections on a variety of griefy topics.

Please get in touch if you’d like to submit something, we’d love to hear from you.

  • Losing Young, quarter-life grief and why community matters

    Losing Young, quarter-life grief and why community matters

    To commemorate her new book, Rachel Wilson shares some thoughts on grieving as a young adult. It’s a period in our lives that is ‘meant’ to be full of opportunity and exploration, but can be incredibly isolating and overwhelming when you’re facing loss.

  • Responding to the Nottingham attacks

    Responding to the Nottingham attacks

    Last week I was contacted by the BBC to speak about student bereavement. Yes, this is in response to the loss of two students in Nottingham, but it is also about the thousands of students experiencing grief every day.

  • After Tom

    After Tom

    A creative piece based on the experience of losing my uncle, Tom, and the days that followed his death as I helped care for my grandparents.

  • Sometimes I don’t want to be hopeful

    Sometimes I don’t want to be hopeful

    The Student Grief Network is all about hope, really, but I think it’s also important to acknowledge those times when hope it the last thing we want to hear about. When we want the utter devastation of a situation to be allowed.

  • Grieving in the Digital Age

    Grieving in the Digital Age

    Social media and online communities can play an important role connecting people who are grieving and shedding light on a whole range of experiences. But digital platforms can also lead to misinformation, unhealthy distraction, and increased levels of loneliness. How do we balance these pros and cons?

  • ‘Our lives are in a different colour now’

    ‘Our lives are in a different colour now’

    Grief is not just a matter of missing a person. It can complicate our relationship with ourselves and the ways we function on a day-to-day basis. Josephine shares some of the ways that her losses impact the way she thinks and feels – from her memory to her self esteem.

  • The realities of university support systems

    The realities of university support systems

    A recent article in The Times shows us how university welfare systems are failing bereaved students, and why we need more well-informed, compassionate and hands on support.

  • For those impacted by cancer

    For those impacted by cancer

    Fole recently founded Good Grief, a community to connect anyone who has been affected by cancer. Here she shares some of the ways she has personally been impacted, from losing her Grandma and then her Mum, to finding out the chances of developing cancer herself are significantly higher than average.

  • A dream about my brother

    A dream about my brother

    I’m not sure I believe in ‘letting go’ of grief, or what that would even entail, but I wanted to reflect on the idea of carrying someone with us as we reconnect to the good in our life. This is a short creative piece based on a dream I had…

  • Searching for an anchor

    Searching for an anchor

    Whatever our age, life stage, whether they were loving and close, or had a more complex relationship with us, or none at all, when we lose a parent, it is felt deeply in every cell of our body. We can feel like we are losing essence, or a part of…

  • Grieving an absent parent

    Grieving an absent parent

    I have been wildy struck with the fact that I lost a dad who I didn’t have in the first place – anyone with an addict parent will understand this. I lose a possible opportunity in the future to try and build a relationship with someone who I am half…

  • Some challenges uni throws us after loss

    Some challenges uni throws us after loss

    Evee shares her experience of university life after she lost her mum in 2018. Evee is the co-founder of The Grief Reality, a wonderful blog where you can read many more lived experiences of grief and even contribute your own story.