We have all experienced loss. Many of us have experienced the loss of loved one and the chest-tightening, life-changing grief that brings. So did Shelly Fisher and Jen Jones, co-authors of Breaking Sad: What to Say After Loss, What Not to Say, and When to Just Show Up.

Fisher and Jones work together at Fisher’s Pay It Forward Group in West Conshohocken.

The book sprang from Fisher’s loss of a dear friend, Stephanie Liem Azar, who lost her life at age 26, just a month after her wedding.

Fisher promised Azar’s mother that she would write a book to honor Stephanie, extending beyond her life the young woman’s commitment to helping others.

Breaking Sad endeavors to help others who have suffered a loss as well as those who want to comfort them. It’s a compilation of stories and poems written by the grieving and their answers to four questions:

• Best thing someone did or said?
• Worst thing someone did or said?
• Advice for someone going through a similar experience?
• Advice for those surrounding the bereaved?

One of the most inspirational features of the book is that all proceeds (100%) go to the Herb It Forward Foundation (named after and honoring Fisher’s father), a scholarship program administered by Jones.

Featured in The Philadelphia Daily News, Breaking Sad is a how-to-talk-to-the-grieving book published by She Writes Press and available on Amazon.

If you’ve ever been confused about what to say to someone who has suffered great loss, this book will help.