What to give to someone who has lost a loved one? This question is often asked and although flowers are the traditional gift of condolence, there are many other alternatives.

What is meant by anticipatory grief? It is normal to feel grief whenever there is a loss. What is puzzling is that anticipatory grief begins before a death when aspects of the previous life is lost to the disease. The technical term is ambiguous loss when a person is physically present but mentally lost. Addictions, mental psychosis, dementia, or Alzheimers’s are examples of ambiguous loss. Yes, grief can begin without a death.