Forget prayers, bring cake : a single woman's guide to grieving / Merissa Nathan Gerson.

Foreword / by Autumn Brown -- Author's note -- Introduction -- Life before death -- Home (alone): What do I need? How do I even know? -- Identifying your needs -- Making your bed your lover, and other tools for navigating hell -- Setting up your grief support -- Co-pilots: making your friends your spouse -- Special requests: how to ask for help -- When to Tinder, when not to: dating while grieving -- Dating standards: the new frontier -- Wills and bills and thrills, oh my! -- Building an after-death checklist -- What to expect when your expecting (grief) -- Understanding trauma -- Life after death -- When the free flow of cake stops: relationships after loss -- Setting new boundaries -- Hello? Is this over yet? -- Extra support: grief groups and grief counselors -- But actually, pray: spiritual practice as life partner -- How to pray -- Compounded grief: fire and brimstone -- Stabilizing your nervous system in a pinch -- The future -- Forget cake, make rituals: memorializing on your terms -- Anniversaries -- How to build a ritual -- If there is such a thing as "completed grief", this is it -- How to be the grief support -- Life after death: finding joy.

Though at times it may seem impossible, we can heal with help from our friends and community-- if we know how to ask. This heartrending, relatable account of one woman's reckoning with loss is a guide to the world of self-recovery, self-love, and the skills necessary to meeting one's own needs in these times of pain-- especially when that pain is suffered alone. Grief is all around us. In the world of today it has become common and layered, no longer only an occasional weight. A book needed now more than ever, Forget Prayers, Bring Cake is for people of all ages and orientations dealing with grief of any sort--professional, personal, romantic, familial, or even the sadness of the modern day. This book provides actions to boost self-care and self-worth; it shows when and how to ask for love and attention, and how to provide it for others. It shows that it is okay to define your needs and ask others to share theirs. In a moment in which community, affection, and generosity are needed more than ever, this book is an indispensable road map. This book will be a guiding light to a healthier mental state amid these troubled times.