A collection of stories, poems, short memoirs, and expository pieces about people's direct experiences with death and dying. From a death professionals like clergy and a mortician to a police officer seeing his first young person killed in a car accident; from a child whose parent commits suicide to a child who experiences one parent murdering the other; from Iraq and Lebanon and Bosnia and the United States these stories are moving and instructive. A section tells how different religions treat death is helpful in knowing how to relate to friends of various religious identities. Written by people in the U.S, Middle East, Europe, India, and Australia, and including deaths by illness, war, police or gang violence, suicide, murder, this collection of short pieces will assist the living to better grieve as they experience the mortality of those they love (and their own mortality) whatever way it comes. Authors: Donald Betts, Jr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Julie Ann Baker Brin Sharon Hill Cranford J. Rae Rice-Cranford Brian Daldorph Robert L. Dean, Jr. Aida Dziho-Sator Charles (Ohiyesa) Eastman Gretchen Cassel Eick Richard Eick Eyyup Essen Cammie Funston Linda Gebert Edward Ernest Goode Michael D. Graves Hafiz Judy Keller Hatteberg George Hough Tom Hull Miriam Iwashige Billy Dee Johnston Mohan Kambampati Erin Kyna Ruth Maus Najiyah Maxfield Mark McCormick Ronda Miller Amena Mohamad Susan Moir John Monroe-Cassel Jim Potter Cora Poage Michael Poage Rumi Mark Scheel Julie Stielstra Janet Jenkins-Stotts Maaskelah Kimit Thomas Diane Wahto Phillip Wood