A.
- Acceptance – the feeling that comes when one realizes that the death is real
- Advocacystanding up for and directing others in a ways to help a grieving child, teen, and family
- Autopsyan examination of the body following the death to discover the cause of death or other pertinent information
Anticipatory grief grief work before a loss or death
B.
- Bereaved one who has suffered loss of another through death
- Bereavement torn apart, syndrome of grief and mourning
- Body donation a body given to medical school for study, and then returned to the family as cremains
- Burial placing the body in the ground, in a casket which is placed in a vault
- Burial plot gravesite
C.
- Casket a box that hold a dead body
- Cemetery a burial place
- Closed casket a service in which the body is present in the casket and the casket door is closed
- Commemorate a ritual that remembers the dead person
- Complicated mourning grief that is extended and intensified by various factors and takes longer to resolve
- Condolence expression of sympathy for another in grief
- Coroner a public officer who determines cause of any death
- Cremains the ash that is left after cremation
- Cremation a disposing of the body through intense heat, which turns the body into fine ash
- Crematory a place where a cremation takes place
- Crematorium a furnace or building where cremation occurs
D.
- Death Education teaching what happens to the body after a person dies
- Death notice an obituary
- Death certificate a legal document certifying name, date, and cause of death
- Deceased one who has died
- Denial the inability to admit that the death happened
- Depression continuing sadness
- Donor a person who contributes something (a gift); a body part, transplant, research, or education
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E.
- Embalming exchanging a special preservative liquid with the dead persons blood
- Empathy being able to feel with someone as opposed to feeling for someone
- Epitaph a short verse written as a tribute to a deceased person
- Eulogy speech or writing in praise of a deceased person
- Euphemism the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend
- Euthanasia act or method of causing death painlessly good death
F.
- Funeral a special place where loved ones say good-bye (usually held within seven days of the death)
- Funeral Director a trained professional who helps the family plan and conducts services for the person who died
- Funeral Home a place where bodies are taken and cared for before the funeral or memorial service
- Funeral procession a line of cars (a parade of cars) that go from the funeral home to the cemetery or special place that the family has chosen
G.
- Grave a hole dug in the earth that holds the body in a casket, in a vault
- Gravestone marker or burial site
- Grief thoughts and feelings one has when someone they love dies
H.
- Headstone a stone that marks the grave of a persons name, date of birth, and date of death
- Hearse a vehicle for transporting the casket to a church or cemetery
- Homicide murder the intention killing of another person
- Hospice an organization that provides home care and instructions for families whose loved one wants to die at home
M.
- Magical thinking thoughts children have when they believe that if they think it, it will happen
- Mausoleum a building for above ground burial, housing one or many tombs
- Memorial Day the last Monday in May honoring American servicemen and women who died for their country
- Memorial service a gathering of family and friends to remember the person who died, share stories, and comfort one another
- Morgue a place where the bodies of accident victims and unknown persons found dead are kept prior to identification and disposal
- Mortuary a place where dead bodies are prepared or kept prior to burial or cremation funeral home
- Mourning an outwardly expression of grief (grief gone public)
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N.
- Near-death experience an experience related to people who have been near death; experiences, feelings etc.
O.
- Open casket a funeral or memorial service where the casket is open and the body can be seen or viewed
- Organ donation a contribution of body parts to organ banks or a living individual
P.
- Pallbearers – people who carry the casket at a funeral
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R.
- Ritual – a specific series of actions or behaviors performed for a particular reason
S.
- Shiva – Jewish formal period of mourning following a death
- Shock – feeling of numbness and disbelief that comes when first hearing about the death of a loved one
- Sorrow – the feeling of sadness that comes with loss, often accompanied by crying
- Suicide – taking one’s own life – killing yourself
- Survivors – people left behind following a death
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T.
- Thanatology – the study of death
- Tomb – a grave or building where the deceased are buried
U.
- Urn – a container that holds the cremains
V.
- Vault – a strong, concrete box that holds the casket in the ground
- Viewing – a time when family and friends gather, before the funeral when the body can be seen in the casket
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W.
- Wake – a watch over the body of the dead person (sharing memories and enjoying family times
- Will – a legal statement of a person’s wishes concerning disposal of his or her property after death
