The 4 to-dos of accepting a loss

4. Emotionally relocate the deceased and move on with life.

Grief ends when the individual is able to perform their daily duties without thoughts of their loss. At this point, memories of the departed one are fading and are no longer in the uppermost thoughts of the griever. The grieving one has come to realize that there are other people to be loved and life must go on.

When does grieving end?

There's no definite answer to this question but from the cases studied, mourning cannot end till all four items on the to-do list have been completed.

One definite indicator of completed grief is when the griever is able to talk or think about the deceased without pain.

'Mourning never ends. Only as time goes by, it erupts less frequently.' (Boulby 1980)