Listening to Layers of Loss

Abstract

Reflecting on the recent losses of her sister, father, and mother in the midst of the global pandemic, the author moves from acquaintance-level grief communication encounters through grief communication with friends, family, and, ultimately, the self-communication that has sustained her during this intense period of bereavement. Building upon scholarship in autoethnography, family communication, grief, and trauma studies, moreover, the author shares bereavement practices that have helped her process loss. Following her personal narrative, she provides seven offerings to encourage the bereaved reader and support their grief writing. The essay concludes by challenging assumptions of U.S. culture’s “grief illiteracy,” with a call for white writers, in particular, to interrogate the social scripts and systems of power and privilege manifest in their grief communication. Moreover, the author encourages all autoethnographers to build systemic critique from their multilayered personal considerations of grief and post-traumatic growth.