Beyond the Veil Living
Personal Story Guide
“The Love That Still Lives”
We invite you to share the story of someone you love who has passed beyond the veil. Your story does not have to be polished or perfect. Just tell it honestly, in 1,000 words or fewer.
You may use the guide exactly as written, or you may send your own version and allow us to gently edit and refine it for clarity, flow, and readability, while preserving your meaning and voice. When complete, email a copy to us:
gracebeyondloss@outlook.com
For a Simple 'Fill-in' Story Version Scroll to the bottom of the page, copy and paste into your word processing application and just substitute within the brackets, make it your own...
This is not about proving one belief or explaining grief in one correct way. It is about honoring love, remembering a life, and showing how that love still inspires the living.
Because every loved one leaves more than an absence.
They leave a light and didn’t come this far to stop...
Research and therapeutic practice demonstrate that expressive writing, whether in a journal, letter, or creative piece. can help process emotions, clarify thoughts, and create a lasting record of memory and meaning.
2. Loved One’s Basic Information
My loved one’s name is:_________________________________________
Relationship to me:_________________________________________
Date of birth:_________________________________________
Date of passing:_________________________________________
Age at passing, if you wish to include it:________________________________________
1. Title
Choose a simple title.
Examples:
“The Love That Still Walks With Me”
“What My Mother’s Still Teaches Me”
“Living Forward With My Son’s Light”
“Her Laughter Still Finds Me”
“He Is Gone, But the Love Stayed”
My story title:
_________________________________________
3. Opening: Who They Were to Me
Start with one warm paragraph. Imagine you are sitting with a friend over coffee and saying, “Let me tell you about him/her.”
My loved one was more than a name, a date, or a memory. To me, he/she was…
You might include:
Their role in your life
Their personality
Their spirit
Their humor
Their kindness
Their struggles
Their favorite sayings
The way they made people feel
5. What Life Was Like With Them
Now tell what it felt like to share life with them. This may include daily life, childhood memories, marriage, friendship, parenting, caregiving, laughter, ordinary moments, hard seasons, or the kind of love that does not always need words. Life with them was...You might include:
A favorite memory
A regular routine
A funny story
A hard time you went through together
A moment when you felt deeply loved
A picture of everyday life with them
Example sentence starters:
“One memory that stays with me is…”
“We used to…”
“The house felt different when they were there because…”
“They could drive me crazy sometimes, but…”
“Their love showed up in simple ways, like…”
6. The Loss and the Grief
This part does not need to be dramatic. It only needs to be true. You may share as much or as little as feels right. The goal is not to relive every painful detail. The goal is to tell the truth about what their passing did to your heart. When they passed, my world…
You might include:
How the loss affected you
What grief felt like in your body, mind, or spirit
What you struggled with most
What you did not know how to face
What changed in your daily life
What you wish people understood about your grief
Example sentence starters:
“When he/she died, I felt…”
“At first, I did not know how to…”
“The hardest part was…”
“For a while, grief made me…”
“I learned that sorrow is not just sadness. It is…”
7. The Turning Point: When Love Began to Move Again
This is the heart of the story. Not the day everything became easy. That may never come in the tidy way we wish. But maybe there was a small turning. A sign. A dream. A memory. A song. A grandchild. A quiet morning. A moment when you realized their love was not asking you to stop living. Such as:
Over time, I began to feel that her/his love was still with me when…
You might include:
A moment that gave comfort
A memory that became guidance
A dream, sign, or inner knowing
A phrase they used to say
A realization that they would want you to live
A moment when grief softened into gratitude
Example sentence starters:
“One day I realized…”
“I began to imagine what she/he would say to me…”
“His/Her memory stopped feeling only painful when…”
“I could almost hear her/him telling me…”
“I began to understand that healing did not mean leaving him/her behind.”
8. How Their Love Inspired You to Live
Because of their love, I am learning to…
You might include:
A new freedom
A healthier way of living
A renewed purpose
A desire to serve others
A spiritual awakening
A change in attitude
A creative project
A community connection
A better relationship with yourself or others
Example sentence starters:
“Her/His love inspires me now to…”
“I honor her/him by…”
“I am learning to live with more…”
“Because of her/him, I try to…”
“The freedom I have found is not freedom from missing him/her. It is freedom to…”
9. What You Would Say to Them Now
This can be a short letter, a prayer, or a few honest lines. This part often touches readers deeply because it lets love speak plainly.
"If I could speak to him/her now, I would say…"
10. Closing: What You Hope Others Receive
End by turning gently toward the reader. Someone grieving may be reading your story in the dark, wondering whether life can ever feel livable again. Offer them one small candle.
If someone reading this is grieving, I want them to know…
Example sentence starters:
“You do not have to rush your healing.”
“Your love is not gone just because their body is gone.”
“Living again is not betrayal.”
“The sorrow may remain, but it does not have to be the whole story.”
“Love can change shape and still stay real.”
4. What Made Them Special
This is where you help the reader see them. Not as a saint on a pedestal, unless they earned it, and even then, maybe with muddy shoes. Show the real person
What made him/her unforgettable was…You might answer:
What did they love?
What made them laugh?
What were they good at?
What did people notice about them?
What little habit or phrase still makes you smile?
What did they teach without trying?
Example sentence starters:
“People remember him/her most for…”
“One thing he/she always did was…”
“He/She had a way of…”
“If you knew Her/Him, you knew…”
“What I miss most is…”
Editing Note: Use your loved one's name in place of him/her when it comes naturally.
Write Simple Fill-in Story Version
Copy and paste in your word processing application. Replace the content within the brackets with your own knowledge and history and edit to suit.
My loved one’s name is [ ]. [ ] was born on [March 12, 1969], and passed on [June 30, 2022]. To the world, those may look like two dates separated by a little dash. But to me, that dash holds a whole life. It holds laughter, struggle, love, lessons, ordinary days, hard moments, and memories I still carry like folded letters in my heart.
Haynes was special because [he had a tender heart, even when life made it hard for him to show it]. He was not perfect. None of us are. But there was [a softness in him, a deep feeling place, that never quite got ruined by the rough road he had to walk]. He [loved animals]. He could be [funny, stubborn, wounded, kind, and distant all in the same stretch of daylight]. That was Haynes. [Complicated, yes. But, clean and sober, never without love.]
If you knew him, you knew [there was more going on inside him than he could always say]. He carried things. Some spoken. Some not. And somewhere in all of that, [he carried a love for his mother, Jayne, that ran deep].
[His relationship with his mother was one of the great loves and great sorrows of his life. She loved him with that fierce, aching, mother kind of love, the kind that keeps hoping, keeps praying, keeps watching the road even after the headlights are gone. And I believe Haynes knew that. I believe he felt it. I believe it touched him, even when [he could not always respond to it in the way she deserved].
One of the things that stays with me is [the sorrow I believe he carried for the hurt he could not help leaving with her]. Not because [he wanted to hurt her]. God, no. But because [pain has a way of spilling over onto the very people who love us most]. Addiction, struggle, fear, and shame can make a person act like [they do not see the hand reaching for them, even when that hand is the one they most need].
Life with Haynes was [not simple, but real]. We shared [hope, worry, laughter, pain, silence, and the long road of a father and son finding each other in pieces]. He taught me that [love is not measured by how easy the story is]. Sometimes love is measured by [what remains after everything else has been shaken loose].
When Haynes passed, my world changed. I felt [heartbreak, disbelief, sorrow, and a kind of emptiness that did not ask permission before moving in]. The hardest part was [knowing there were no more ordinary phone calls, no more chances to fix what had hurt him, no more earthly way to say what fathers and sons sometimes take too long to say].
Some days, grief felt like [carrying a stone in my chest while trying to act like I was only carrying groceries]. Other days, it felt like [standing in a room after the music had stopped, still hearing the last note]. I did not always know how to move forward. Part of me felt like [living again might mean leaving him behind].
But little by little, something began to shift. I started to feel his love in [memory, silence, writing, faith, and those quiet moments when the world seems thinner than usual]. I began to imagine what he would want for me, and for his mother. I could almost hear him saying, [“I’m sorry for the hurt. I never meant to leave it in your hands. Please don’t let my pain become the rest of your life.”]
That does not erase the sorrow, but it gives the sorrow a little light to sit beside.
I began to understand that healing does not mean forgetting. It means learning how to carry love in a new way. I honor [Haynes] by [telling the truth about grief, by refusing to let death have the last word, and by trying to help someone else feel less alone in the dark].
If I could speak to Haynes now, I would say: [Son, with time our bond grows stronger, and every day shortens the time until we meet again.]
And if someone reading this is grieving, I would tell them this: your grief is not proof that you are broken. It is proof that love mattered. Cry when you need to. Laugh when it sneaks up on you. Keep their memory close, but do not let sorrow lock the door on your life.
Love does not ask us to stop living.
Sometimes, love becomes the very reason we begin again.
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When complete, email a copy to us:
gracebeyondloss@outlook.com
Beyond the Veil Living 2025
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