A guided grief journal written to help you process the loss of a friend, for the grief that comes with no official role and no time off.
The short answer. Still With Me is a guided grief journal that helps you process the loss of a friend by writing through it, with 80 written prompts across 9 chapters in 120 pages, sized 6 × 9 inches, in paperback at $29.99 or hardcover at $39.99. For the loss of a friend there is a dedicated Friend edition, with a neutral Loved One edition when the relationship does not have a simple name. Every copy is printed to order at a local facility in your region and arrives 7 to 12 business days after you order.
A note before anything else
When a friend dies you are usually not the next of kin. You are not consulted about the funeral, you may hear about it second-hand, and you are expected back at work on Monday. That does not make the loss smaller. For many adults a close friend is the person they spoke to most in the world. Grief without a formal role has a name, disenfranchised grief, and its main feature is having nowhere to put it. A journal is one place: somewhere to work through it one question at a time, when nobody is asking. If today is unbearable, please look at our help page; in the US, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be called or texted at any hour.
Which edition to choose
| Edition | Choose it when |
|---|---|
| For the Loss of a Friend | The prompts say friend throughout: how you met, what you told each other that nobody else knew, the running jokes, the last ordinary conversation. |
| For the Loss of a Loved One | Neutral wording throughout: the right choice when the word friend undersells it, or for a colleague, a mentor, a neighbour or a chosen-family relationship. |
If you are buying for someone whose friend died, the friend edition does something a general sympathy gift cannot: it treats them as bereaved. That recognition is usually the part they are not getting anywhere else.
What is inside
The same nine chapters run through every edition, written to be worked through slowly rather than finished:
- Who you were: their character, their habits, their voice
- Our beginning: the earliest things you remember
- Everyday moments: the small ordinary things that go first
- What you taught me: what you carry from them now
- The hard parts: the last months, the things left unsaid
- What I miss: named plainly, without tidying it up
- Letters to you: open pages for writing directly to them
- Carrying you forward: rituals, dates, what stays
- Still with me: where you are now
Every prompt is a question with room to answer, not a blank page, and nothing has to be answered in order. The full specification and a comparison with a blank notebook is on the guided journal vs blank notebook page.
Try the prompts before you buy anything
There is no need to buy a journal to start writing. We publish free prompt sets for this loss, with a printable PDF at no cost:
If you want the reasoning behind the practice first, read our gentle guide to grief journaling and what research says about writing through loss.
Giving it to a grieving friend
Most sympathy gifts go to the family. Almost nothing goes to the best friend, the group chat, the person who drove them to every appointment. A journal sent to them says their loss is real, and it asks nothing back: no reply, no thank-you note, no using it. Our sympathy gift guide covers what to write in the card, and the gift sets page pairs a journal with a memorial candle. Journals ship for a flat $6.49 within the US, $8.49 to Canada, $8.75 to $13.45 within the EU depending on the order, and $9.00 to the rest of the world; gift sets that include a candle ship separately, from $7.99.
People look for this in different words: a sympathy gift for someone who lost a close friend, a memorial keepsake, a remembrance book, a bereavement gift for the loss of a friend. What it is, plainly, is a guided book of eighty questions to write to their friend in, bound to be kept. Unlike flowers or a card it is not gone within the week, and unlike a blank notebook it does not ask the person to decide what to write on a day when deciding anything is hard.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best grief journal for the loss of a friend?
One written for that specific relationship rather than for grief in general. Still With Me publishes a dedicated friend edition with 80 prompts across 9 chapters in 120 pages, in hardcover or paperback.
Is it strange to grieve a friend this much?
No. Friendship is often the closest daily relationship an adult has, and it carries none of the formal recognition that a spouse or parent gets. Grief researchers call that mismatch disenfranchised grief; it is common, and it tends to last longer precisely because it is not acknowledged.
Is a journal a good gift for someone whose friend died?
Often yes, and it is one of the few gifts aimed at them rather than at the family. It can sit unopened until they are ready, and it still makes sense months after the funeral when other support has stopped.
What if the friendship had ended before they died?
The prompts do not assume the friendship was current or uncomplicated. The chapters on the hard parts and the things left unsaid, and the open letter pages, are written for exactly that.
How long does it take to arrive?
Every copy is printed to order at a local facility in your region. Printing takes 3 to 5 business days, and most US orders arrive 7 to 12 business days after you order. Shipping is a flat $6.49 to the US and $8.49 to Canada on every journal, $8.75 to $13.45 within the EU depending on the order, and $9.00 to most other countries, and the exact rate for your address shows at checkout.
Is journaling a substitute for grief support?
No. Writing can give grief somewhere to rest, but it is a personal practice, not a treatment. Our help page lists places to turn. In the US, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be called or texted at any hour.
What is a good sympathy gift for someone whose best friend died?
Something that still makes sense after the first two weeks, when the flowers and cards have stopped. A guided journal written for the loss of a friend is one option: eighty questions about them, bound as a keepsake, that the person can open when they are ready and put down when they are not. Other gifts that hold up over time are a printed photograph of the two of them, an invitation to talk about the friend by name, and a meal delivered later rather than sooner.
See all twenty editions on the shop editions page, or find the right one on who it is for.