First Holidays After Someone Died? Read These

I’ve spent 17 years with grief making the holidays harder. I didn’t have a list of books to turn to when I was 10 years old and lost my mom. The truth is that as a child in a Latinx family, I barely had any acknowledgement of my grief. I felt so lonely and out of sorts as a kid that later when I turned 21 years old and lost my second mom, my grandmother, I decided to immerse myself into learning more about grief and also creating content around it.

The below list of reads is one I wish I had during my first holidays after someone died. It includes short reads that can keep attention even when you’re utterly distracted by your grief. It includes novels that will make you say “YES THAT’S ME” and also “THANK THE UNIVERSE FOR NOT FEELING ALONE” at the same time.

Think of this list as a starting point if you’re trying to figure out how to get through the winter holidays when you’re immersed in your grief.

Nobody’s Son by Mark Slouka — The New Yorker

I remember what I was doing when I first read this piece and then I remember what I did immediately afterwards. I happened upon Mark Slouka’s piece in The New Yorker two months before my grandmother officially passed, but a month after we realized death was a matter of when and not if.