Why I Wanted To Finish My Father’s Life’s Work By Karen Brown Feature Karen Brown recalls the pain and joy of fulfilling a deathbed promise.
The Misidentification of Raheme Malik Perry By Krista Stevens Highlight When a hospice takes a man off life support in a case of mistaken identity, who is responsible?
A Woman’s Work: Till Death Do Us Part By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson considers the emotional and physical labor required of women as their loved ones die.
Old Dudes On Skateboards By Aaron Gilbreath Feature The death of his life-long skateboarding friend prompts Aaron Gilbreath to get back on his board — at 44, with his toddler daughter in tow.
The Girl I Didn’t Save By Longreads Feature Cameron Dezen Hammon reflects on her frustrations as a Christian music minister for the terminally ill, unable to heal a cancer patient she cared for, and struggling to be compassionate at her belligerent Jewish father’s bedside.
I Will Outlive My Cat: A Reading List on Pet Death By Alison Fishburn Reading List Alison Fishburn shares seven longreads on how humans experience the death of their pets.
How to Predict the Unpredictable By Katie Gutierrez Feature After the death of her dog, Katie Gutierrez grapples with the ripple effects of her decisions — and how to live with uncertainty as a mother.
Keeping My Promise to Popo By Anne Liu Kellor Feature As Anne Liu Kellor says goodbye to her Chinese grandmother in the hospital, she taps into buried memories and family trauma.
Conversations with My Loveliest By Melissa Berman Feature Melissa Berman recalls what was said, and not said, between her and her beloved aunt as they approached her final year.
Woodstock: My Queer Love Story By Kate Walter Feature Kate Walter went to Woodstock in 1969 with her boyfriend. She went back in 1994 with her girlfriend. She’s not going back again.
The Burdens We Carry By Amy Scheiner Feature Amy Scheiner reflects on her mother’s sudden death and what it means to be a woman in a world that is set up to bury them.
Father’s Little Helper By Scott Korb Feature While under the influence of Valium, Scott Korb reflects on all the fathers he could have been and the father he has become.
Shovel, Knife, Story, Ax By Erika Howsare Feature When you live with animals, you collect killing stories.
The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning By Rachel Vorona Cote Feature Nowadays, we live online, and so we grieve here too. But there are limits to the comfort digital mourning can provide.
‘Little Grandpa’ and The List By Abigail Rasminsky Feature When her grandfather died, Abigail Rasminsky learned about a part of his life she’d known nothing about.
A Mountain and a Range of Memories By Krista Stevens Highlight “After Lathrop died, I could not bring myself to delete his phone number.”
To Grieve Is to Carry Another Time By Matthew Salesses Feature Matthew Salesses considers the impact of his wife’s passing, and other factors, on his experience as a human passing through the fourth dimension.
‘There Are Things You See With Your Body’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “Stepping away, I feel something evaporate, a quantum of my soul, perhaps, burning up on contact.”
The Leaves, They Never Stop Falling By Colin Dickey Feature Colin Dickey remembers a departed friend and a tree that won’t die.
Uncertain Ground By Grace Loh Prasad Feature Grace Loh Prasad realizes that mourning is complicated when home and homeland aren’t the same place.
The Pain of Loss, Through Centuries and Books By Michelle Weber Highlight “My father is dead, I said to myself, my father is dead. Again and again I said it, and still I failed to grasp what it meant.”
A New Low: Stealing From the Dead By Krista Stevens Highlight “Thieves and forgers are taking houses from the deceased in ‘hot’ (Philadelphia) neighborhoods — as the city stands by.”
What Falls to Earth By Susanna Space Feature Grieving the mysterious death of her father, Susanna Space seeks refuge in the study of meteors.
The Haväng Dolmen By Longreads Feature A trip to a Swedish stone-age burial site gives an archaeologist too close a look at death.
Blackstars By Michael Gonzales Feature Michael Gonzales reflects on the deaths of a dear friend, and a bookworm he idolized: David Bowie.
Jack, Jacqueline — Dad By Yvonne Conza Feature Yvonne Conza wrestles with the complexities of estrangement from her dying — complicated — dad.
‘I Don’t Know What Else to Do. So I Run.’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “You see that you can never go back. And with this knowledge a peculiar grief descends.”
“I know I believe in the power of lining up little hopes” By Krista Stevens Highlight At Oxford American, Michael Graff remembers his dad, Carl.
After World War I, Horror Movies Were Invaded By an Army of Reanimated Corpses By Longreads Feature Were early horror films, with their long, angry processions of the undead, repeating the mass trauma of the First World War, or foreshadowing the coming of the Second?
