How to Help a Grieving Family After the Loss of a Child, Printable Grief Support Guide for Friends, Relatives & Coworkers, Sympathy Gift
$7.55
How to Show Up for a Grieving Family
A guide for friends, relatives and coworkers after the loss of a child.
Part of the I Am Grieving, Now What? series. 19 pages.
When a family loses a child, the people who love them often freeze. You want to help, but you're afraid of saying the wrong thing, so you say nothing, or you say something you regret. This guide shows you what grieving parents wish people knew, what to say and what to skip, and how to help in ways that don't make the family ask. It also helps you remember the brothers and sisters and the grandparents, keep showing up in the months after the casseroles stop, and care for your own grief too.
A gentle introduction before every page. Each one explains, in a few soft lines, why the page matters, grounded in respected grief research, including David Kessler's work on witnessing grief, Dr. Heidi Horsley's work on sibling grief and Kenneth Doka's work on disenfranchised grief.
WHAT'S INSIDE (19 PAGES)
Start Here
• A personal note from me on page 2, then a note for you and how to use this guide
What Helps
• What grieving parents wish you knew
• Words that help, and words to skip (with a "try this instead" table)
• Say their name: why it matters so much
• Help that doesn't need asking: meals, chores, kids' rides, errands
• My "I will do this" plan (fill-in)
The Whole Family
• Showing up for the brothers and sisters
• Showing up for the grandparents, and both parents
The Long Haul
• Months 2-12 and beyond: a simple rhythm, with a month-by-month reminder table
• The hard dates: a calendar to put in your phone, with message ideas
Online and At Work
• Social media: when to post, and when to wait
• At work: for managers and coworkers
For You
• Your own grief (disenfranchised grief and Ring Theory)
• A page for me
• When you said the wrong thing: how to repair it
At the end
• Find your circle: how to join The Ugly Cry Club, a grief group for those who have loved and lost
• A thank-you page with a 25% off code, a link to my shop and an invitation to ask for custom gifts
WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE
5 PDF files, 19 pages each:
• Fillable – US Letter (type your plan and calendar right into the file)
• Full color – US Letter (8.5 x 11 in)
• Full color – A4
• Printer-friendly (white background, saves ink) – US Letter
• Printer-friendly – A4
WHO IT'S FOR
• Aunts, uncles, cousins, close friends, neighbors and church family of a family who has lost a child
• Managers, HR and coworkers welcoming a grieving parent back to work
• A thoughtful gift for the people asking a grieving family "What can I do?"
HOW IT WORKS
• This is a digital download. Nothing will be shipped to you.
• After checkout, your files appear under You > Purchases and Reviews on Etsy, and in your Etsy confirmation email.
• Print at home or at a local print shop, or write on the pages on a tablet with a PDF app like GoodNotes or Notability.
• Fillable fields work best in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Print a single page or the whole guide, as many times as you need for your own personal use.
A GIFT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO HELP
Buying for someone else? You can purchase this as a gift and send the download to a friend, a sibling, a church group leader or a coworker who wants to show up well. It's also a kind thing for a grieving family's closest person (a sister, a best friend) to share with the people around them, so the family doesn't have to explain what they need.
A NOTE FROM ME
Hi, I'm Niki. I made these pages after losing my daughter, Harper. I'm not a therapist. I'm a mom who has walked this road, read everything I could find, and leads The Ugly Cry Club, a group for grief and loss. I'm also in training to become a certified grief educator. Every page is written the way I wish someone had spoken to me: gently, honestly, and without a timeline.
Real tears. Real love.
Harper's Heart Press
PLEASE NOTE
• This guide is a gentle companion. It is not therapy and is not a substitute for care from a licensed professional. If you are in crisis or thinking about ending your life, please call or text 988 (U.S.) or your local emergency number.
• Published sources are credited by name. Harper's Heart Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the authors or organizations named.
• For personal use only. Please don't share, resell, or redistribute the files. Churches, workplaces, HR teams, grief groups and hospices: please message me about group licensing.
• Because this is a digital file, returns and exchanges aren't accepted. If anything is wrong with your download, message me and I'll make it right.
MORE FROM THE I AM GRIEVING, NOW WHAT? SERIES
• The First 30 Days: a small, gentle gift for a parent in the earliest days
• Our First Holidays Without You: a family holidays & hard dates pack
• Mothers Edition and Fathers Edition: guided workbooks for the parents
• Grandparents Edition, and Little Hearts, Heart to Heart and Unsaid for the brothers and sisters
Digital downloads
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But please contact me if you have problems with your order
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Privacy Policy – Harper's Heart Press
Harper's Heart Press is a small shop run by one mom. Most of my customers are grieving, and I take the trust you place in me seriously. This policy explains what information I receive when you buy from my shop, how I use it, and how I protect it.
Information I collect
When you buy from my shop, Etsy shares some of your information with me so I can complete your order:
Your name and Etsy username
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Your order details, like what you bought and when
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My workbooks are digital downloads that you print or fill in privately. I don't see, collect, or store anything you write in them. Your words, memories and reflections belong only to you.
How I use your information
I use your information only to:
Deliver your digital files and help with any download problems
Answer your questions and messages
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Tax and accounting services, and only as needed for my business records
Legal authorities, if the law requires it
If you share your story with me
Many of you tell me about your loss in messages, and I'm honored when you do. Anything you share about your child or your grief is kept completely private. I will never share it, quote it, or use it in my marketing without your clear, written permission.
How long I keep it
I keep order information for as long as I need it to provide support and meet tax and legal requirements, which is generally up to seven years. After that, I delete it.
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Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
Ask what personal information I hold about you
Ask me to correct or delete it
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This includes rights under laws like the GDPR (EU/UK) and U.S. state privacy laws such as the CCPA. To make a request, message me through Etsy and I'll reply as soon as I can. Some information may need to be kept for legal or tax reasons, and some requests (like closing your account) are handled directly by Etsy.
How I protect it
I keep your information secure and limit access to myself. I don't keep copies of order information outside of Etsy except where tax records require it.
Contact
If you have a question about your privacy, please send me a message through Etsy.
Harper's Heart Press · Idaho, USA
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