This is an ABC podcast.

When a person dies, what do we know about how many people, on average, are affected?

Yeah, there's different estimates. So a recent one based on data from the US, I believe,

showed that probably at least nine people substantially affected.

But if you think about it, it's probably a lot more because there are a lot of informal connections.

You know, multiple people from within the neighborhood, workplaces, churches, or other kinds of

religious communities, sporting communities, and so on. So there's definitely a lot of people that are mourning.

So the ripple effect can actually be quite wide.

And when we say affected, are those the people who might actually have

serious grief over the loss of the person or affected in any way?

Well, that's an interesting question, I guess,

around how you might measure grief or how

you might define it. But I guess people who might be affected to some degree that they might

attend the funeral, they might take time off work or school. For some people, it might be a day

or a half day and then some quiet reflection and for other people of course it has a much

much bigger impact on their lives going forward. Grief is deeply painful obviously but it's

something the majority of us do eventually find ways to live with. That doesn't mean we get over it, quote on quote, but we figure out a way to move forward.

A hundred percent and I don't like phrases like closure or move on or letting go.

And yeah, instead it is definitely a lot more about a process of learning to adapt to and accommodate that loss

into our lives over time.

But research is starting to emerge on how the pandemic may have changed the way we grieve,

making the experience more intense, more debilitating.

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