I am a grieving widower, of three and a half years standing. I have been through both individual and group grief counseling. I am looking for some type of, if not exactly peer support, at least sharing of shared misery.
Having been something of a researcher all my life, when my wife died I started researching grief. I have researched, and developed some resources, on topics such as men's grief, grief scams (I am also, by profession, an information security specialist), grief bots, and a variety of other topics. I am currently working with a hospice society producing a podcast which we call "A Good Death." Various articles on different topics of grief can be found at https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2025/06/grief-table-of-contents-and-resources.html.
Grief (peer) support groups are composed of people who, by definition, understand bereavement. Unfortunately, most grief support groups seem to end when the formal group curriculum ends. One of the hospice societies with which I had some connection had a Saturday tea, which anyone who had taken either individual counseling, or group grief support, through that hospice society was allowed to attend. (I referred to it as the Grief Alumni Tea.) There were people from different grief support groups, and some who had just had individual counseling, but all were bereaved, and all were able to provide support, and insight, to each other. (Unfortunately, I moved away from that area, and into an area where the population doesn't seem to support group meetings that don't involve beer.)
I figured that there must be a lot of places where the population won't really support a face-to-face drop-in situation for informal grief support. So, I have been attempting to find such, online, so far without success. Such groups seem to be extremely rare. So, being not exactly an expert in grief, but having researched it a bit, and being professionally an expert in computer communications, I'm trying to get something started, under the title of GriefGrads.
I would appreciate help from anyone who feels that they would like to participate. But I would like to make it clear that I am not interested in starting yet another business in the grief industry. For those in the grief industry, if you find this might be interesting or useful to some of those with whom you have contact, I would appreciate any kind of publicity that you feel able to offer. If you run something similar and charge for it, I completely understand if you do not wish to publicize this type of free activity. Those in the grief industry who are looking to advertise their own services or shill for clients are cordially invited not to attend. If you are, in fact, bereaved, and are willing to talk about your own grief, and help those who participate, I welcome your feedback and participation.
As one of the Internet dinosaurs (I was on the Internet before it was *called* the Internet), I am initially interested in running a group over email. I realize that many people see this as a kind of a privacy concern. I have two responses to this concern, first that the identification of those participating in GriefGrads with an email address is a realistic privacy concern, but that the identification of scamming participants with particular email addresses seems to me to outweigh the concerns about participant privacy. In addition, I know that social media platforms are far less anonymous that many people seem to think. However, I am willing to consider social media platforms, as well. Since the girls require me to be on WhatsApp, I would consider this as a kind of a second step in providing a GriefGrads platform. It provides for easy chat functions (once somebody is on the system), and can also provide for small video conferencing meetings. I am willing to consider additional social media platforms, with the proviso that I want to make this as accessible to people as possible. I would consider virtual meetings with video conferencing, such as Google Meet, although I do want to keep the GriefGrads available as a free offering, and the free offerings on the various virtual meeting platforms are generally limited to short meeting times.
For those wishing to participate, you can contact me at rslade@gmail.com
For those who might be concerned that this is a scam, or simply want to check me out, you can start at
or
or
http://fibrecookery.blogspot.com
If you want to check me out even *further* on social media, you can start with the accounts listed at https://www.blogger.com/profile/00652675651093388424
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