Grief Lending Library

The story of how the author found strength to survive her loneliness and loss of identity...

• Death of a Partner

• Historical

Describes how widowed people of all ages contend with the loss of a spouse, and the equally important loss of their own marital identity.

• Death of a Partner

A seventeen-year-old boy trying to recover from the loss of his girlfriend meets an unusual girl.

• Teens

• Death of a Partner

“Told by his widow, here is the story of a man doomed by cancer who chose to die as he had lived…with knowledge and vitality.”

• Death of a Partner

• Historical

In this book, Jenny Lisk shares of when her life suddenly changed after her husband was diagnosed with an inoperable brain cancer. Follow her story as she tried to figure out “parenting grieving children, and rebuilding some sort of life for three--out of four--members of her family”. You'll love this poignant memoir because it's heartbreakingly honest, and ultimately hopeful.

• Death of a Partner

• Cancer

A gay widower may find that once the shock and initial confusion of losing his partner is over, there are still many hard, lonely, and overwhelming feelings to be worked through. Often, the bereaved feels isolated, and looking around for comfort, realizes that he doesn’t have many resources to turn to. This book is a start.

• Death of Partner

• LGBTQ

The authors having both suffered the loss of a spouse at a relatively young age. Their empathy, valuable psychological insights, biblical observations, and male and female perspectives will help you experience grief in the healthiest, most complete way so you can move forward to embrace the new life that is waiting for you.

• Death of a Partner

This bold narrative written by the drummer and lyricist for the band Rush shows how Peart tried to stay alive by staying on the move after the loss of his 19-year-old daughter and his wife.

• Death of a Partner

• Death of a Child

Patty Dann had been married almost 10 years to her husband when he was suddenly diagnosed with a fatal brain cancer. In this memoir, Dann explains how the plans they'd made would abruptly come to an end. Worse, Dann had no idea how she'd explain to their three-year-old son.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Death of a Partner

A celebrated author submits an intensely personal account of the meaning of his wife's death.

• Death of a Partner

• Cancer / Historical

Packer’s reflection about Richard and Margaret Baxter story surrounding Margaret’s death. Packer edited version considers six of life’s realities – love, faith, death, grief, hope and patience.

• Death of a Partner

True story of seven men who were raising children on their own after the deaths of their wives.  The men connected with each almost immediately, and over the next several years forged a deep bond as their monthly meetings evolved into a forum for healing and personal reinvention that transformed them in unexpected ways.

• Death of a Partner

• Men and grief

"Learning to live happily after the experience of devastating loss is among the most important lessons that can ever be taught. Carole Brody Fleet dares to answer the questions that many are afraid to ask.”

• Death of a Partner

• Cancer

With bittersweet poignancy, Lear chronicles her husband’s valiant efforts to combat his sickness as more heart attacks and devastating postsurgical complications befall him. A stunning work of medical drama and journalism, Heartsounds is above all the gripping story of a passionate, enduring love.

• Death of a Partner

The Hot Young Widows Club isn’t just for people who have lost a spouse, but an essential tool for anyone who has gone through a major life struggle. Based on her own experiences and those of the listeners dedicated to her podcast, Terrible, Thanks for Asking, Nora offers wise, heartfelt, and often humorous advice to anyone navigating a painful period in their lives. Full of practical guidance, Nora also reminds us that it’s still okay to laugh, despite your deep grief. She explores how readers can educate the people around them on what to do, what to say, and how to best to lend their support. Ultimately, this book is a space for people to recognize that they aren’t alone, and to learn how to get through life’s hardest moments with grace and humor, and even hope.

• Death of a Partner

The true story of a young widow's anguish and the paradoxical enrichment grief can bring.

• Death of a Partner

Humphry depicts his empathy with his wife's pain from cancer, his own anticipatory grief and how he helped her to die.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Death of a Partner / Historical

The death of a life partner poses unique challenges for lesbians. This book reveals the touching and very personal stories of twenty-five women, including the author, who were widowed at a young age and forced to create a new life without their life partners. The book follows the widows from the time the couple met, to the time when one of the partners died, and beyond, to show how the surviving partner coped with her loss.

• Death of a Partner

• LGBTQ

Twenty-something Holly has moved to Brighton to escape her grief. But now that she's here, sitting on a bench, listening to the rolling waves, how is she supposed to fill the void her boyfriend left when he died? She had thought she wanted to be on her own. Beautifully written, Let Me Be Like Water is a moving and powerful debut about loneliness, friendship, the extraordinariness hiding in everyday life.

• General

• Death of a Partner

Todd's wife Lisa reveals what really happened on that ill-fated flight, as well as poignant glimpses of a genuine American hero. She talks candidly about Todd's growing-up years, their marriage and last week together, and then family moments without him-the devastating day her children learned their daddy had died, how they celebrated his first birthday without him, the mix of grief and joy when she gave birth to their third child, and how she's found the confidence to go on in the face of such tragedy and loss. It's no wonder that, through this unpretentious homemaker and mother, an entire nation can find hope, inspiration and strength.

• Death of a Partner

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

Recording the full range of mourning from intense shock to moments of exceptional affirmation, Klaus’s stories and reflections on loss bear witness to universal truths about the first and most significant year of mourning.

• Death of a Partner

Written from the author’s own experiences regarding the important decisions that must be made after the loss of a spouse.

• Death of a Partner

Through discussions of various theories of grief, narratives of the bereaved obtained in interviews with 22 men and women, case study analysis, and chapter summaries, this text integrates the literature about and the bereavement experiences of partners in varying types of relationships.

• Death of a Partner

This is a story of love, of life, and of death, which affirms that love is life even if it seems to hold death. It is a story told mostly with poetry--the story of the lights and shadows of one man's life--a journey of sorrow and growth. It was written in great anguish of spirit, out of deep personal need. This is also a story of love, happiness, and faith.

• Death of a Partner

When journalist Beth M. Howard's young husband dies suddenly, she packs up the RV he left behind and hits the American highways. Making Piece powerfully shows how one courageous woman triumphs over tragedy. This beautifully written memoir is, ultimately, about hope. It's about the journey of healing and recovery, of facing fears, finding meaning in life again, and moving forward with purpose and, eventually, joy.

• Death of a Partner

Through these pages, widowed people of all ages share their pain, their anger, their despair. Even more importantly, they share the discoveries and the insights that have enabled them to heal and build new lives for themselves.

• Death of a Partner

An inspiring memoir of life, love, loss, and new beginnings by the widower of bestselling children’s author and filmmaker Amy Krouse Rosenthal, whose last of act of love before her death was setting the stage for her husband’s life without her.

• Death of a Partner

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.

• General

• Death of a Partner

This book covers topics such as: the steps to rebuilding beliefs, relationships, and happiness; how to honor the past without being dominated by it; what assistance to request from family and friends; how to tell the difference between sadness and depression; when to seek company and when it’s best to be alone; why reminiscing about the past can help create a new future; and why some people take longer than others to recover their love of life.

• Death of a Partner

The Sound of Solitude is the most moving, private, and essential collection of verse Rod McKuen has yet been willing to share with his millions of readers. Written in diary form this book details the slow, secret search for love, the joy of finding someone, and the nearly indefinable emptiness left behind when love goes.

• Death of a Partner

An angry expose - the result of hundreds of interviews and extensive research into the plight of The American widow.

• Death of a Partner

• Historical

Sheryl Van Weelden speaks to those who are on their grief journey, or those supporting people on their grief journey. Within the pages of this book, she invites them to walk down that path with her.

• Death of a Partner

The author gives advice, inspiration, and constructive suggestions for dealing with the problems of widowhood.

• Death of a Partner

• Historical

Real life accounts of how the loss of a husband, wife or partner affects one’s life. For anyone who has had a lifemate die.

• Death of a Partner

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Death of a Partner

This gentle, parent-friendly book affirms parents who are considering palliative care, or have already decided against continued aggressive medical intervention for their dying child. Listen to the stories of parents who have been there. Read about what "medical miracles" can really mean, and know that your decisions come from love, devotion, and the courage that lies in letting go.

• General

• Death of a Partner

My name is Heather and this is my story. It follows me from marrying my best friend and succeeding through an infertility struggle, to becoming a widow and ultimately a single mother. This is the journal of my life after losing the love of my life to mental illness and suicide. My hope is to help others out there who may be travelling a similar path as I am.

• Death of a Partner

• Suicide

Shares the experiences of widows who have found comfort and continuity in mutual-help and community support programs. Brings the success of the original widow-to-widow program into the 21st century, preparing a new generation of community leaders, clergy, counselors, hospice staff, social workers, and the widowed themselves to organize and implement mutual-help programs.

• Death of a Partner

Author, therapist, and fellow widow Genevieve Davis Ginsburg offers you-as well as your family and friends-sage advice for coping with the loss of a husband. This book equips you with the gentle encouragement and practical strategies you need to start along the path to building a new life.

• Death of a Partner

Practical suggestions for the newly widowed.

• Death of a Partner

• Historical

Widowed Parents Unite is more than a book-it's a lifeline. Within its pages, you'll meet parents who've lost their spouses to unforeseen tragedies, from sudden accidents, to relentless illnesses. Their stories resonate deeply, providing both solace and advice.

• Death of a Partner

…to show widowers how others were coping with problems they, too, were experiencing.

• Death of a Partner

• Historical

Step by step information to aid a woman in her new role as widow.

• Death of a Partner

• Historical

From one of America’s most iconic writers a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience – her husband’s sudden death. This book will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

• Death of a Partner