Introduction

When your family member in service dies, your life is forever changed. In addition to the death of the person, you will experience many other losses, called secondary losses. These may include loss of financial security, loss of your sense of the future, loss of community, loss of identification as a service family, loss of self-identity, loss of sense of security, to name a few.

This topic explores some of the unique challenges you may experience as a military or RCMP family when grieving the death of family member in service. Grief can affect not only our emotions but also our thinking, behaviour, and physical well-being. Your grief will be impacted by who this person was in your life, your relationship with them, and the circumstances of their death, among others. We recommend that, before you begin, you review Living with loss and grief.