It’s helpful to have some clear, simple definitions of the language of grief and loss:

Bereavement

Is the state of having suffered a loss: physical or symbolic

Grief

Alan Wolfelt describes grief as “the constellation of internal thoughts and feelings we have when someone we love dies…In other words, grief is the internal meaning given to the experience of loss” 

Yvette Perrault of Good Grief Care talks about grief as “The process that allows us to say good-bye to what was and to get ready for that which is yet to come”

Mourning

Any public shared expression of a person’s thoughts, behaviours and emotions related to the loss 

Examples include a funeral, wake or celebration of life. A public event like a butterfly release or a Candlelight Vigil.