Introduction

The history of aftercare as a formal entity consisting of organized memorial services, support groups, and individual counseling, is quite short and probably dates back only twenty-five or thirty years. However, anecdotal incidents abound about informal aftercare, where earlier generations of funeral directors and their spouses offered a cup of coffee, a telephone conversation, and a sympathetic ear to their bereaved client. As we begin the twenty-first century, aftercare is found in many

guises. It is still the funeral director taking time to have a cup of coffee while listening to the widower’s lament. I t is found in the hospital chaplain’s office, where widowed women and men gather for shared expression of feelings and comfort. Aftercare is evident when hospice workers organize and present a seminar on how the recently bereaved can cope with the holidays. Aftercare can be seen when a group of widows and widowers enjoy dinner and a movie that have been arranged by their aftercare coordinator. Aftercare is provided by a certified counselor who is assisting the bereaved mother of a completed suicide rebuild her shattered life. Aftercare is visible whenever anyone in the community is willing to sit down and help another through the long, burdensome, hurtful mourning process, a process that really is only beginning during the visitation and funeral or the memorial service. Mourning is a necessary but painful experience that continues long after the formal death ceremonies have ended. Aftercare begins when those ceremonies are done, when all the friends have gone.