Most people who’ve never dealt with the death of a loved one think the toughest challenges facing the bereaved are mortuary arrangements and estate settlement. Those who’ve lost someone they loved will tell you those challenges are easy in comparison to the countless details that crop up weeks, months, and sometimes a year or more after your loved one dies.

We all know that when someone we love dies, we have to make mortuary arrangements and put our loved one’s finances in order. Because we expect to face those challenges, when the time comes we roll up our sleeves and address doing what we knew we would have to do. Most of us think that once the funeral is over and the will is read (or the estate plan is disclosed), we’ve finished the tough tasks and we can focus on grieving.

Far too often, after the funeral is over the real challenges start.

Ask any of your friends or family members who went through the death of a loved one in the last year or two, and they will probably tell you painful stories of addressing countless unexpected details. Each time another unexpected little detail arose, dealing with it seemed that much harder because they thought they’d already addressed everything.

The human spirit is incredibly resilient. We can get through just about anything–as long as we can see the finish line. We even do OK the first couple of times the finish line gets moved a little further back from where we expected. But if it keeps getting set further and further away from us, even the most resilient amongst us can crack.

When someone we love dies, we will almost certainly encounter unexpected challenges. Disposing of personal and real property can take months, if not years. Discontinuing household services like gardeners, house cleaners, and pest control can be daunting when we often don’t even know about one of more of these services until we find a bill amongst our loved one’s mail. Stopping automatic withdrawals to charities and service providers may be next to impossible without closing the accounts they draft. Sometimes these challenges are addressed with a phone call; more often than not it takes several phone calls or person-to-person appointments. Through it all, we’re grieving. That means we don’t have the energy or patience we would ordinarily bring to these challenges.

It helps to know what challenges we might face, but who can help us identify the unexpected? People who have recently been through the experience of loss, that’s who!

We’re surrounded by great resources, but we probably couldn’t identify most of the people who can help us. What are we going to do, walk up to strangers and ask them if they’ve recently dealt with the death of someone they loved? Of course not!

That’s why we’re inviting these wonderful resource folks to share their experience in a supportive, secure online community we call Shelter from the Storm. If you’ve been through the death of a loved one and faced unexpected challenges join the Shelter, as we like to call it. There is no cost or obligation, and there never will be.

We’ll add the experiences of clients we’ve served, but the challenge you faced may be one we’ve never encountered and one someone else is facing right now. When you share your experiences, you help us help people just like you.

And if you’re moving through a very recent loss and feeling overwhelmed, check out all the free resources at the LifeWellLived website. If you want help telling your loved one’s story and/or celebrating their life, those services are available on our website too, or you can just drop us an email at info@lifewelllived.com or give us a call at 888-345-0759 and we’ll be honored to serve you.