Rethinking Death Rituals: How Personalizing Memorials Helps Us Process Grief
Rethinking Death Rituals: How Personalizing Memorials Helps Us Process Grief Learn how personalized death rituals — from funerals to simple traditions — can deepen connection, support grief, and create meaningful remembrance. By Sarah E. Clem, MSW “Death ritual”...
Grief Doesn’t Stop at the Classroom Door
Grief Doesn’t Stop at the Classroom Door A personal account of loss during college and how it led to research and advocacy for bereavement leave and compassionate support in higher education. By Red Douglas, Evermore's Manager of Higher Education Initiatives ...
2025 Year-End Review: Oh, What an Incredible Year It Has Been!
“Not all growth takes place in the light.” — Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Mycelia By Joyal MulheronIf you know the poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, you know she has a rare ability to articulate what so often feels inexpressible. Recently, in her poem Mycelia, one line...
Giving Back to You: Introducing America’s First Government-Approved Community Bereavement Response Guide for Child Fatalities
Giving Back to You: Introducing America’s First Government-Approved Community Bereavement Response Guide for Child Fatalities By: Joyal Mulheron Most times when Tori’s phone rings, it’s not good. Tragedy has struck yet another family, and she and her small team of...
Love is for Evermore: A Night of Soul, Storytelling, and Song
Love is for Evermore: A Night of Soul, Storytelling, and Song Has a nondescript encounter ever changed the trajectory of your life? For me, it was the fall of 2017, when I opened an email from a Washington Post lifestyle writer. Within weeks, Evermore’s work was...
Breaking Barriers: What the Nation’s First SSAB Report Reveals About Orphanhood and America’s Forgotten Children
Breaking Barriers: What the Nation’s First SSAB Report Reveals About Orphanhood and America’s Forgotten Children By Joyal Mulheron, Founder and Executive Director of Evermore Brian never expected to raise three children on his own. A veteran of the U.S. Armed...
When Grief Speaks, Love Answers: Honoring Olivia
When Grief Speaks, Love Answers: Honoring Olivia How one girl’s love and spirit continue to guide a family’s mission to support others through grief. By Reina and Mel Chan Our journey to start a family wasn’t easy. The road was long and often uncertain. We had...
Bo-Hawg & Evermore, A Love Story & A Fish Fry: A Deep-Fried Meaning Found in Grief
Bo-Hawg & Evermore, A Love Story & A Fish Fry: A Deep-Fried Meaning Found in Grief How Bo-Hawg owner Greenberry Taylor injected Evermore into Pig Fish's DNA and the culminating Fryin' Up Good Vibes Fish Fry in Alabama that we've all been waiting for. Grease...
Supporting Grieving Families Through Rare Disease Loss: The Traces of Trinity Foundation’s Mission of Hope
Supporting Grieving Families Through Rare Disease Loss: The Traces of Trinity Foundation’s Mission of Hope By Crystal Jennings In 2004, my husband Darrell and I began our life together as husband and wife, excited for the journey ahead. Early on, we knew we wanted...
Grief, In Our Own Words: Thirty-Six Hours of Forever: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss
Grief, In Our Own Words: Thirty-Six Hours of Forever: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss From Joy to Loss: The Heartfelt Journey of Beatrice Kathryn By Rachel Alder Half an hour before our OBGYN entered our tiny clinic room that day, my wife and I shimmied past her...
From Pain to Expression: The Transformative Power of Poetry for Grieving, Systems-Impacted Youth
From Pain to Expression: The Transformative Power of Poetry for Grieving, Systems-Impacted Youth By Nebeu Shimeles “She wore her grief, loosely like a battered, faded shawl draped around her shoulders. She had nothing to say.” – Arundhati Roy, The God of Small...
Launching the Lived Experience Bereavement Research Network: A National Dialogue on Grief, Medicine, and Future Bereavement Research
Launching the Lived Experience Bereavement Research Network: A National Dialogue on Grief, Medicine, and Future Bereavement Research By Joyal Mulheron Over the last decade, few topics have been more passionately debated among members of the grief community than the...
An Unprecedented Review: 12,000+ Bereavement Studies to Improve the Quality of Future Healthcare for Bereaved Persons
An Unprecedented Review: 12,000+ Bereavement Studies to Improve the Quality of Future Healthcare for Bereaved Persons By Joyal Mulheron On Thursday, March 13, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released the nation's first report on the quality...
Honoring the Legacy of Emily Westfal: A Social Work Pioneer in Bereavement Care
Honoring social worker Emily Westfal's legacy of compassion in bereavement care—advocating for grief support and building a stronger community.
Memories In Ink: Letters to Our Loved Ones
By Jena Kirkpatrick In honor of National Poetry Month this April, Evermore invites you to express your memories in ink by writing and sharing a letter poem in honor of your loved one. Share it on your favorite social media using the hashtags #evermoreforall,...
Grief Doesn’t Have a Timeline: Letting Go of Society’s Expectations
Grief Doesn’t Have a Timeline: Letting Go of Society’s Expectations By Nora Biette-Timmons It’s almost a rite of passage, googling “stages of grief” when you’re grieving, supporting a loved one who’s grieving, or preparing to enter a period of grieving. The idea...
Grief and Bereavement Books for Kids and Teens
This list was developed in collaboration with Dr. Donna Gaffney, an expert in children's grief. A tragic event is difficult to comprehend for even the most mature, knowledgeable adult. For children and adolescents faced with trying to understand such an...
SAMHSA Releases Its First Grief and Bereavement Fact Sheets
SAMHSA Releases Its First Grief and Bereavement Fact SheetsThe Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or "SAMHSA," has released its first grief and bereavement fact sheets. These fact sheets represent a substantial step forward in the U.S....
With Your Generous Support, We Are Making the World a More Livable Place for All Bereaved People
With Your Generous Support, We Are Making the World a More Livable Place for All Bereaved People By Joyal Mulheron Ten years ago, the U.S. government did not prioritize the impact of bereavement on our nation or our lives. Today, bereavement is highlighted in...
Report to Congress: An Overview of Bereavement and Grief Services in the United States
With Evermore's support and encouragement, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, directing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to produce a report on the need for bereavement and grief services in the United States. Last week,...
5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Funeral Industry
When someone close to us dies, we’re hardly in the right frame of mind to handle logistics and practical matters. Yet, often, this is the first thing we’re forced to confront. There’s the matter of the deceased’s body and how it will be handled, but also funeral...
Advocating for Change: How One Man Secured Bereavement Leave for Hundreds of Thousands of Johnson & Johnson Employees Globally
A Grieving Parent Turns Pain into a Purpose Following the death of his teenaged son, Blake, Tom Barklage fought to secure bereavement leave for Johnson & Johnson employees around the world By Maddie Cohen After his son Blake died, Tom Barklage took time...
Distinguished Author & Poet Naomi Shihab Nye Shares Her Poem On Grief, “Old Friend”
Dear Friends unknown, We are joined together by so many things in grief. Maybe there’s a luminous cord connecting us through sleepless hours and hardest times. The poet Jack Ridl told me years ago, after my father died, “Grief is an ambush. When you’re least...
Renowned Poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Honors the Nuances of Grief In Her Poem, “I Want to Listen to Your Absence”
Before my son Finn died, I already had a daily writing practice in place. The day he died was the first night I hadn’t written a poem in over thirteen years. And then I didn’t write at all for the first seven weeks after his death. I suppose on the surface then it...
National Poetry Slam Champion Regie Gibson Pens a Letter of Grief to His Father, “Letter to My Father”
Losing anyone in your life affects EVERYTHING in your life. Your perspectives shift. You question your own mortality. Losing someone close to you makes you feel like a raw nerve in a world of razor-wire. Everything hurts. Losing my dad just before becoming a...
Oklahoma Poet Laureate Nathan Brown Says Less Is More When Talking About Grief In His Poem “Nevertheless, It Moves”
I lost a best friend, fellow vagabond, and gifted poet to a long battle with cancer. We traveled and performed together for years. We joked over homemade-hotel-room drinks about how the $31 we raked in from the donations for the night’s house concert, or whatever...
Notable Poet Brady Peterson Speaks About the Acceptance of Grief In His Poem, “He Checks His Luggage”
First, I have lived long enough to have outlived most of the people who were important to me when I was young. My parents died years ago. My younger brother died three years ago. All but one of my aunts and uncles have died. Cousins have died. Many close friends...
Acclaimed Troubadour and Poet Beth Wood Writes About the Vulnerability of Grief In Her Poem, “LESS HEAVY THINGS”
My own loss and the deep grief that accompanies it brought about profound change in the way I experience creativity. Deep loss breaks you down in a way that also cracks you open. There is loss of control and surrender. Tears and sorrow pour out, but light also...
Five Important Questions About FMLA and Bereavement Leave
By Prerna Shah When a loved one dies, many family members seek bereavement leave to attend to family affairs, their grief, and sort through the many changes that invisibly unfold behind closed doors. It may be surprising to learn that most employees have no legal...
A Little-Known Economic Benefit for Bereaved Children
By Terri Schexnayder Often, when someone dies, we seek to support the grieving family in a meaningful way. In a sign of solidarity and love, we attend memorials or funerals, send condolences, prepare meals, and sometimes participate in athletic events or...