30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away

To learn more about grief and how sharing experiences with others can help cope with the pain, we reached out to Nathalie Himmelrich, a holistic counselor and coach, and founder of the Grieving Parents Support Network. Usually, experiencing grief is extremely difficult and can make it hard for people to speak up about it.

"The grievers sometimes tend to avoid talking about their pain because they have experienced their surroundings not be able to cope with it or use well-meant statements such as 'You can have other children' or 'Your grandmother was old and had a good life, it was better that she could go'. These sentences might be cognitively true but are emotionally barren," Himmelrich told Bored Panda.

People surrounding someone experiencing grief might also avoid talking about it "because they think they might cause the griever pain or remind them [of it]. The truth is that the griever experiences the pain anyway," she noted.

"Have courage, speak about the hard and intense emotional truth of grief," Himmelrich said and added that sooner or later, we all have to deal with it. So "the more openly we speak about it, the more this experience is normalized, and the taboo will be broken."

When asked about whether finding unexpected things in a deceased loved one’s home can make the pain even harder to deal with, the coach shared a story about her mother who had passed away. "I went through her belongings to clear the house," she said. "I was hoping that I would find something personal from her, maybe a letter or some personal notes. Having been living abroad for 15 years before she died, it was a way to get to know her and her life’s work from all the years I missed."

The holistic counselor explained that the situation of finding strange things "can shift the image that we have held on from someone. It does however also correct some of the assumptions we have held. The truth is that everyone has 'strange' things in their lives they might not be sharing with anyone else."

When you lose a loved one, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Especially if you’re responsible for arranging the services or handling their belongings. Himmelrich mentioned that the most important thing is self-care: "Taking time to pause when managing a deceased person’s affairs or asking for help."

"When clearing my mother’s belongings, there were so many beautiful clothes, artwork, and jewelry, besides all the furniture, etc., that I knew I needed help. My father wasn’t able to deal with it given the circumstances, but he helped organize an event for friends, sending them invitations and organizing some catering for the event," she said.

So if you’re having a hard time, remember that sharing experiences in real life or online help deal with your emotions. "My clients come to see me just because of that: being able to talk to someone about all the emotions, the overwhelm, the misunderstandings from family and friends. What is needed is validation and normalizing, which we sadly don’t get from society at large."

"Talk to someone. Talk to a therapist and discuss the feelings that came up in that situation," Himmelrich advised. But if you don’t have the means for it, you may also join her peer support group called May We All Heal on Facebook, where you can share openly with other people who get it.