Each year, Grief Awareness Week offers space for reflection, remembrance, and compassion—and for families in the Hope for HIE community, this week holds particularly deep meaning. From December 2–8, we honor our families who carry the profound weight of losing a loved one to HIE. Grief is not a linear journey, nor one that ever truly ends. It reshapes lives, changes rhythms, and asks for gentleness in moments when the world moves too quickly. During this week, we pause to acknowledge each family’s unique story, our loved ones' legacies, and the strength it takes to keep moving forward. Your love, your memories, and your grief are seen.
As the holiday season arrives—a time often painted with togetherness and celebration—many families living with loss can feel an even sharper contrast between what is and what should have been. There is no “right” way to move through the holidays when your heart hurts. Whether you find solace in tradition, create new rituals of remembrance, or simply take things moment by moment, your path is worthy. Hope for HIE stands with you, offering support, understanding, and community. This Grief Awareness Week, we honor your children, your courage, and the love that forever connects you.
With guidance from Annie Gunning, our Certified Child Life Specialist and Certified Grief Counselor, we have put together some resources to remind you that any feelings you have in this season are valid, to give you some ideas of activities to honor and remember your loved one, and some holiday books recommendations for grieving children.
The holidays can feel different when someone you love has died. You might feel sad one minute and okay the next — and that’s normal. Here are some ways to take care of yourself when your feelings get really big or heavy.
1. Take a Breath
When we’re upset, our bodies get tight and we tend to hold our breath or have short breaths.Try slow belly breaths — in gently, out a little longer. It helps your body feel calmer.
2. Move Your Body
Walk, dance, stretch, play outside — any kind of movement can help release stress and big emotions.
3. Express Your Feelings
You don’t have to talk to process grief. Drawing, writing, building, music, or using your imagination are all powerful ways to express what’s inside.
4. Let Feelings Come and Go
All feelings are welcome — sadness, anger, confusion, even moments of joy. Feelings change. Grief has no timeline, but it really does change over time.
5. Be Gentle With Yourself
There’s no “right” way to feel or grieve. You’re doing the best you can, even on hard days.
6. Talk to Yourself Like a Friend
Try saying, “This is really hard, but I can get through it.” You’re learning how to handle new feelings and new situations, and that takes courage.
7. Ask for Help When You Need It
This one can be hard or scary to do, but it’s okay to ask someone for a hug, a break, or to sit with you. Grown-ups want to help; they just might not know what you need unless you tell them.
8. Notice Good Moments
It’s okay to laugh, smile, or have fun — even when you’re grieving. Enjoying something doesn’t mean you miss your person any less.
These eight, meaningful activities around the holidays can create gentle moments of connection with loved ones who have died. These simple rituals give shape to grief, offering a way to honor memories while still participating in the season’s warmth. By slowing down and making space for these acts, you allow yourself to feel close to those you miss, weaving their presence into your traditions in a tender, meaningful way.
Books can be a gentle and grounding resource for children as they navigate the overwhelming emotions that often come with illness and loss. Stories create a safe and accessible way for kids to explore their feelings and to know that they are not alone. With relatable characters and thoughtful storytelling, books can open the door to meaningful conversations, help clarify difficult concepts, and offer comfort and resilience along the way.
Hope offers a range of resources to support, honor, and remember loss.
Annie Gunning, our on-staff Certified Child Life Specialist and Grief Counselor, is trained to provide coping strategies and suggestions for making memories through the bereavement and grief journey for the whole family—parents, siblings, and extended relatives.
We are able to connect you to resources worldwide, tapping into additional individualized and local programs to support your whole family along the way.
The HIE Loss Support Group is a worldwide peer support network designated for parents who have lost a child to HIE to express their feelings, support one another, and share their stories.
Hope's Peer Support Mentor program matches up families new to HIE loss with experienced, compassionate, trauma-trained peer parent leaders who provide emotional peer support to families through a 1:1 or on-call mentorship experience.
Led by Hope for HIE’s social worker, HIE loss families come together through a video support group that takes place on the second Thursday of every month to find community and discuss their journey with others.
Connect with families, read inspiring stories, and get helpful resources delivered right to your inbox.
Connect with families, read inspiring stories, and get helpful resources delivered right to your inbox.
Jen Schaefer, our on-staff social worker, provides families with a compassionate and caring starting point by connecting them to a range of resources for bereavement, grief, and loss.