A loss is a loss, no matter what. This site is gentle and wise, and is worth having an amble through...there is a section called "The Tasks of Grief", which I like.

http://home.att.net/~velvet-hammer/grief.html

Also, there is a book available at Chapters called How to Survive the Loss of a Love by Harold Bloomfield, M.D., Melba Colgrove, Peter McWilliams (sometimes listed just under Colgrove's name)

"How to Survive the Loss of a Love is the most directly helpful book on the subject of loss ever written. Clear, simple, comforting, inspiring -- it gives the reader what he or she needs at each step in the process of recovering from a loss.

The first edition, published in 1976, sold nearly 2,000,000 copies. This new hardcover edition -- completely revised and expanded -- encompasses not only the medical and psychological advances in the treatment of loss, but also the author's own experiences.
Since the first edition they have had, among them, the death of a parent, a major stroke, two serious car accidents, a bankruptcy, a lawsuit and the valley of the shadow of divorce.

How to Survive the Loss of a Love makes a loving, caring gift -- for another or for yourself. As The Writer's Newsletter suggested, "It's the kind of book you should hand everyone who's lost a friend, a lover, a mate or a dream."


{{{hugs}}}