Tips for Friends
- Keep up your friendship with both persons if mutually desired.
- Don’t be manipulated into taking sides unless you honestly feel a need to do so. It’s your friendship that is important.
- Don’t be a message bearer or report the activities of one to the other.
- Listen to their story as often as they want to tell it and as long as you have time and patience. Part of the healing is talking about the pain to people who care. However, be careful that you don’t listen so much you get resentful.
- Refrain from giving advice. What has helped other people you know may not work in other situations. Friends’ advice is often more confusing than helpful.
- Include your friends in your parties. Be honest when you invite both spouses. Let them figure out who will come.
- Learn about the grieving process so that you can understand what part of this natural process that they are experiencing.