Anticipatory grief Anticipatory grief Anticipatory grief refers to a feeling of grief occurring before an impending loss. Typically, the impending loss is the death of someone close due to illness. This can be experienced by dying individuals themselves and can also be felt due to non-death-related losses like a scheduled mastectomy, pending divorce, company downsizing or war. The five stages namely, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her model of grief describe the process by which people undergo after a loss. Anxiety, dread, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, and feelings of being overwhelmed are also common. However, it is
The Stages of Life a woman who leans toward both children with her right hand raised. These five figures correspond to the five ships visible in the harbour beyond. The three groupings of figures (one aged man, two adults, and two children) echo the positioning of the ships at various distances from the shore as allegorical of the stages of life, and closeness to death. The central ship is thought to represent the mother, while further inshore, two small boats—references to the two children—have only just begun their voyage and still remain in shallow, clear water. To the horizon, the farthest ship disappears into