A Gathering for Friend-loss Grievers

In this gathering, we will share stories and have a facilitated discussion about friend-loss grief.

The session will be hosted and facilitated by Hannah Rumsey, the Founder and Director of Friends Missing Friends -- a community dedicated to providing support and guidance for people grieving friends.

Friend-loss grief is widely ignored and dismissed by our society. Harold Ivan Smith, the author of Grieving the Death of a Friend, said it best: "The distraught close friend of someone who dies has virtually no legitimate, public grief and mourning channels." On top of that, we are told (implicitly and explicitly), not to "compete with, overshadow, or complicate the grief of the deceased's family."

Because of that, friend-loss grievers have very few avenues to openly talk about their grief. In this discussion, we are free to talk about it: the depth of our sadness, the fears, the anxieties, the doubts, the jealousies. Everything we are normally too scared to say.

Let's honor our friends, make connections, and have meaningful conversation.