Your Grief Waves: A Summer of Grief in Photographs

Photogrief / Photogrief : Eleanor Haley


"Grief is like the ocean, it comes in waves"

Grief waves: those moments when your grief comes up out of nowhere, washing over you or knocking you down like a ton of bricks. Early this summer we challenged you to share your "Grief Wave" photographs with us as part of our Summer Photogrief Challenge.  We were overwhelmed by the responses we got.  We only choose five to share in this round-up and it was hard to pick just five!  Luckily you can check out the other submissions in the gallery and by searching the hashtag #griefwaves on instagram.

Submitted on Instagram:

by @juliiacoffin
Nora's Bun-bun....another wave of grief, trying to remember the days do get softer.
by @juliiacoffin
"Alstroemerias...those were Grandma Vikki's favorite." Keeping the memories of our family alive, is a conscious effort; a balancing act if you will. It is important to me that my daughter feels safe to share and express her meaningful sentiments and memories. I lead in this by my example. Without making age appropriate dialog in these moments of my own reminders, my daughter would grow up not knowing the little things that helped in making the lives of her father or either of my parents. Daddy Andrew, Grandma Vikki and Grandpa Dennis would just be pictures on a paper from stories she cannot relate.

It hurts. Remembering. Forgetting. All of it. But in the end, the memories I have are what we have left of them." -lynseystanfield

Submitted on PhotoGrief:

Unhappy Hour
By Kate Gee (you can find her on instagram @griefstagram

This photo montage, that I am calling "Unhappy Hour," was taken when I was having a few beers with friends on a beautiful Friday evening, when the same type of ambulance that arrived after I found my husband dead rolled by and I just lost it for about an hour.

All That We Love Deeply
by Mary Chalifour

All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. ~ Helen Keller

“The Mountains are calling and I must Go.” ~ John Muir.
submitted anonymously

It is not always the ocean that pulls you in for renewal. The mountains have the same effect on this Colorado girl. When I look at this picture that my husband (Scott McClarrinon) took, I see the waves of mountains and I am in awe.


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.

Related Blog Posts

Related Blog Posts

See More

One Comment on "Your Grief Waves: A Summer of Grief in Photographs"

Click here to leave a Comment
  1. enrico  October 15, 2020 at 9:39 am Reply

    Hi Lisa and Eleanor (?)-

    Hope I got your names right. Thank you so much for your podcasts. I have listened to a total of about 3-4 podcasts and you guys are the bomb. You have no idea how relieving it is to hear your voices in an empty home!

    By the end of the month of October, 2020, my wife would have been gone a total of 2 years. Sometimes I just cant believe how time flew. We have 4 kids and when she passed I felt the “numbness” you both described and still do. Perhaps it was because the last 2 were graduating from college, my sister was going thru a bitter divorce, mortgage had to be paid etc. It was just a busy time in our lives so life had to go on no matter what. I have many guilt feelings and moments where I do not think life is possible without her, but some days I am ok. Clearly there is no such thing as getting over it. I have contemplated many times to seek counselling and when I get close to it I just chicken out and don’t push thru. I imagine there are many people like me, I know, I have talked to some of them. I just want to say to you guys that for those of us who prefer not to seek counselling, listening to your podcasts is the next best thing. You guys rock and are God sent. I am at work right now and I cannot wait to go home and listen to you guys. You are touching something inside of me that no one, be it literature or another person, has ever done before in the last 2 years! Something you guys are saying just hits home. Please continue to do what you are doing for the many of us that have suffered a loss. Thank you both so much!

Leave a Comment

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.