Grief In Six Words: A New Site by WYG

Creative Coping / Creative Coping : Litsa Williams



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If you're a long-time WYG grief-friend, you know that Eleanor and I looooove six-word stories. Why? Well, because we love creative expression as a tool for coping with grief. Writing, of course, is one of those creative tools. We also know from many years of working with grievers and hanging out here with all of you that not everyone fancies him/herself a writer and that writing can feel really daunting in grief. But when all you have to do is muster six words, it can feel a little more manageable.

Now, in case you have never heard of a six-word story, here is the deal: A (contested) rumor has it that way back when, Ernest Hemingway was out with some friends who challenged him to write a short story in just six words. He took them up on it and wrote the following story:

"For sale, baby shoes, never worn."

Ernest Hemingway

This sparked a movement of people inspired to write their own six-word stories, six-word memoirs, etc.

A while back, Eleanor wrote a post with a six-word grief journaling exercise and, when we shared it on Facebook, we were overwhelmed by the hundreds of responses that rolled in over the course of just a couple days. It seemed a tragedy that they would be lost in the history of our Facebook comments, so we wrote another post sharing some of the submissions. When we shared that post, people responded with hundreds more incredible six-word grief stories... which we were again sad would be lost in the comments of our blog and Facebook. So we did the only logical thing there was to do: We started a new website! Obviously.

ribbon cutting for griefinsixwords.com

That brings us to today: The official ribbon cutting for GriefInSixWords.com

Now, if you follow us on social media (which you should, just sayin'), you may be a little confused because we have been talking about Grief In Six Words on Facebook and Instagram for a while now. We encouraged our grief-friends to go take the site for a test-drive with some six-word challenges, to help us get it running smoothly. Major thanks to those of you who helped. After all, we are griefy-mental health gals, not web developers, so we needed all the help we could get!

Today, whether you're hearing about it for the first time or if you knew about it already, we invite you to head on over to Grief In Six Words. While you're there, we hope you'll read the stories that got the site going. Though our early site testers faced some technological glitches, we were still left speechless by the powerful six-words stories that rolled in. We hope you'll like them and share them, if you feel inclined. We hope you'll consider sharing your own six-word grief story. Just so you know, none of the stories shared in the comments of past WYG six-word posts were moved to the new site, so feel free to share a story there that you have already shared with us. Or, share a brand new six-grief story. Or both! There are no rules here (well, except that whole six-word rule).

Stay tuned in the future on the blog and social media, because we will continue doing six-word story challenges. We've already done one for Children's Grief Awareness Day and for Valentine's Day.

Still a little confused about this whole grief in six-words thing? Below are some amazing examples:

Everything changed with that one knock - Ginny
My daughter's choice — My grief forever - Kim
His hell ended, my hell began - Mary
Still, the sun rises and sets - Christine



I died with you, my son - Gay


grief-in-six-words-7 gisw-8 gisw-5



Hopefully you are feeling a bit inspired to write your own six-word grief story or to read some more stories. If so, head over to griefinsixwords.com.

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We wrote a book!

After writing online articles for What’s Your Grief
for over a decade, we finally wrote a tangible,
real-life book!

After writing online articles for What’s Your Grief for over a decade, we finally wrote a tangible, real-life book!

What’s Your Grief? Lists to Help you Through Any Loss is for people experiencing any type of loss. This book discusses some of the most common grief experiences and breaks down psychological concepts to help you understand your thoughts and emotions. It also shares useful coping tools, and helps the reader reflect on their unique relationship with grief and loss.

You can find What’s Your Grief? Lists to Help you Through Any Loss wherever you buy books:

Let’s be grief friends.

We post a new article to What’s Your Grief about once a week. Subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts.

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49 Comments on "Grief In Six Words: A New Site by WYG"

Click here to leave a Comment
  1. Beth Ann  September 1, 2023 at 6:07 pm Reply

    “I’m not going to die mommy!”

  2. Bob Bowdoin  March 8, 2023 at 8:01 pm Reply

    Once dark but there is sunlight

    1
  3. Lori DeBlieux  January 26, 2023 at 10:04 pm Reply

    Living without you is killing me

  4. Kathleen M Vaudo  June 26, 2021 at 4:36 pm Reply

    My son my friend my heart

  5. Kathleen M Vaudo  June 19, 2021 at 1:25 pm Reply

    My son her father our loss

  6. Kathleen  June 19, 2021 at 12:20 pm Reply

    Another Father’s Day without her father.

  7. Michelle  January 26, 2021 at 8:54 am Reply

    Trauma took away my happy memories.

  8. Anita Sachs  January 12, 2021 at 9:00 am Reply

    I hate my life without you

  9. Lisa  January 3, 2021 at 8:39 pm Reply

    Another year to live…….without you.

  10. Ann  May 22, 2020 at 11:18 am Reply

    I didn’t know. Damn pill mills…

  11. Mirela  December 26, 2019 at 9:00 pm Reply

    I stopped living when you did

  12. DeAnn  December 23, 2019 at 11:47 pm Reply

    My daughter died, I’m changed forever

  13. Allison  May 1, 2019 at 8:42 am Reply

    That color means do not resuscitate.

  14. James  December 27, 2018 at 12:24 pm Reply

    “Family of four, now only three”

  15. Kim  November 15, 2018 at 5:36 pm Reply

    My baby deserved to live longer.

  16. Yen  November 3, 2018 at 9:46 am Reply

    6 words
    “Parents gone forever I am orphaned”

  17. Mari  October 8, 2018 at 11:09 am Reply

    He is always with me.

    Spirit comforts me

  18. Caryl Dow  July 15, 2018 at 9:37 pm Reply

    why are they all so sad?

  19. v  July 6, 2018 at 12:44 pm Reply

    I want you back so bad. Please, please come back to us.

  20. liz  January 14, 2018 at 2:34 am Reply

    Saturday, may 27, 2017, 9:23 AM

  21. liz  January 14, 2018 at 2:34 am Reply

    Saturday, may 27, 2017, 9:23 AM

  22. D  June 12, 2017 at 10:19 am Reply

    That life ended with your choice

  23. Jill  June 2, 2017 at 7:54 am Reply

    My ray of sunshine is gone.

  24. Donna Galanti  December 12, 2016 at 11:14 am Reply

    Who am I without my mother?

  25. Mellissa  November 28, 2016 at 11:45 pm Reply

    Everything changed in only one minute

  26. Linda  November 8, 2016 at 7:57 am Reply

    No more suffering, Thank You Lord

  27. gloria  October 24, 2016 at 3:26 am Reply

    I will always hate Monday mornings.

    • Tays Mom  October 25, 2017 at 10:51 pm Reply

      I know how you feel. It’s a Monday/Tuesday for me! Much Love to you mama

  28. suzy  October 12, 2016 at 6:33 pm Reply

    I hate heroin it took Kevin

  29. Cathy  October 11, 2016 at 10:28 pm Reply

    Please let there be an afterlife.

  30. Suzy  October 7, 2016 at 5:43 pm Reply

    Kevin you could have called me

    1
  31. Andrea  October 7, 2016 at 4:31 pm Reply

    Missing: Giggles, squeals, sticky kisses –joy.

  32. Cheryl  October 6, 2016 at 6:29 am Reply

    Still hearing you in our home.

  33. Sherene  October 6, 2016 at 12:14 am Reply

    Tragic. Unexpected. Beautiful. Soul. Lost. Future.

  34. Gary  October 5, 2016 at 10:15 pm Reply

    Takes a licking, keeps on ticking.

  35. Millie  October 5, 2016 at 7:30 pm Reply

    Navy Chaplain arrived on Christmas Eve.

  36. Kelly Frasier  October 5, 2016 at 7:12 pm Reply

    We blew each other kisses good-bye.

    • Kelly  October 5, 2016 at 7:20 pm Reply

      Tomorrow is my dad’s second angelversary. I just wanted to honor him here. In a few more than six words, I wanted to add that my father was a giver, he gave until the moment he died. In six words….Daddy gave us all of himself!

  37. Susan  October 5, 2016 at 3:16 pm Reply

    it happened and I’m still here

  38. Suzie  October 5, 2016 at 3:04 pm Reply

    Life will never be the same.

  39. Richard  October 5, 2016 at 2:26 pm Reply

    This could become the one poster I put on my wall. Beautiful expressions birthed by sorrow. Thanks to all of your sharing.

  40. Andrea  October 5, 2016 at 1:47 pm Reply

    One day my world forever changed

  41. Tanya  October 5, 2016 at 12:40 pm Reply

    My world changed with one breath.

  42. Sandy Frankel  October 5, 2016 at 11:55 am Reply

    Thank you. I hang on to every post by WYG. Mine: “I want to donate his organs”
    “I signed the DNR order”. ‘I didn’t get to say goodbye”

  43. Jeanette Winkelman  October 5, 2016 at 10:10 am Reply

    I was blessed to have him

  44. Andrea Madsen  October 5, 2016 at 10:06 am Reply

    Wow- I just wrote two. Who would have thought that writing 6 words could be so powerful! Thank you-

  45. Jude Hersey  October 5, 2016 at 9:35 am Reply

    My sun and moon are gone!

  46. Orvel Griffith  October 5, 2016 at 9:01 am Reply

    My six words ” The last words, Orvel help,nevermore.

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