Does Healing After Loss help with grief?

Healing After LossMartha Whitmore Hickman

Photograph by Jannis Christmann on Pexels.

Yes — and it is the one on this list most likely to work when you cannot read. It is 365 short daily entries, written by a mother whose sixteen-year-old daughter died in an equestrian accident while the family was away. Concentration is one of the first things grief takes, and this book is built for its absence.

Where this sits on our shelf

We have not read this one yet. It is on our reading list, and it is here because it is well regarded and because people ask us for it. Everything below is drawn from the book itself, its publisher and its author’s own account of their work — not from our experience of reading it.

The books on this shelf that carry a section headed “Our note” are the ones this family actually read, in grief. This one does not carry that section, and it will not until it has earned it. We would rather tell you which is which than have you assume.

What it is

A page a day for a year. Each entry opens with a short quotation and follows it with a few paragraphs. William Morrow published it in 1994 and it has stayed in print for three decades, which for a book with no marketing engine behind it tells you something.

Martha Whitmore Hickman lost her daughter, aged sixteen, to an equestrian accident on a family holiday. The book came out of that.

What it actually argues

The format is the argument. Most grief books assume a reader who can hold a chapter in their head. In the early months that reader does not exist. People describe reading the same paragraph four times and retaining none of it. A single page, self-contained, with a quotation at the top to orient you, is a book designed around that fact rather than in spite of it.

Its second move is to refuse to hurry you. The entries validate what is being felt without proposing that it should be felt less, or for a shorter time. Readers consistently describe this as the thing that distinguishes it — it does not read as though it is waiting for you to improve.

It is arranged as a calendar, and it is explicit that you need not treat it as one. Start in the middle. Read three in a row on a bad night and none for two weeks. The structure is a scaffold, not an instruction, and that permission is stated rather than implied.

What it does not do is explain grief. There is no model here, no stages, no framework to learn. It is a companion rather than a guide, and whether that is what you want depends entirely on whether you are looking for understanding or for company.

Who it is for, and when

The first weeks and months, when nothing longer than a page will stay in your head. Also for the people who want to send something and do not know what — this is a better gift than a card, and it does not demand to be finished.

What we cannot tell you

⚠️ We have not read it, so we cannot tell you how much of it is written from a religious frame. It is carried widely by Christian booksellers, which may reflect the content or may only reflect how it has been distributed. If that matters to you either way, look inside before you buy it — and when we have read it, this paragraph will say something more useful.

If this one is not right for you

• Want the argument rather than the companionship? → It's OK That You're Not OK
• Further along, and looking for what to do with it? → Finding Meaning
• The full list, sorted by how far along you are → The Shelf

Common questions

Do you have to read Healing After Loss every day, in order?

No. It is arranged as a calendar year of 365 entries, but the book is explicit that it does not need to be read in sequence. Start anywhere, read several at once, or leave it for weeks. The structure is a scaffold rather than an instruction.

Is Healing After Loss a religious book?

We have not read it, so we will not tell you either way. It is distributed widely through Christian booksellers, which may or may not reflect the content of the entries themselves. If this matters to you, look inside a copy before buying.

Who wrote it, and had she lost someone?

Martha Whitmore Hickman. Her sixteen-year-old daughter died in an equestrian accident while the family was on holiday. The book came out of that loss.

Why would short daily readings help more than a full book?

Because concentration is one of the first things grief takes. Many bereaved people cannot hold a chapter in their head for the first months. A self-contained page asks almost nothing, which is why this format survives when longer books get abandoned on the nightstand.

Last reviewed October 2026. We make nothing from this recommendation. There are no affiliate links on this page. See our editorial and sourcing policy.