This book uses the term mourning to indicate the process that occurs after a loss by which a bereaved person comes to terms with the loss. Grief, on the other hand, refers to a person’s reaction to bereavement comprised of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors experienced after the loss that change over time. Since mourning is a process, it has been viewed by different theorists in various ways—primarily as stages, phases, and tasks. Borrowing from developmental psychology, the author sees mourning—the adaptation to loss—as involving the four basic tasks. The four tasks include: to accept the reality of the loss; to process the pain of grief; to adjust to a world without the deceased; and to find a way to remember the deceased while embarking on the rest of one’s journey through life.