Why grief is more difficult today
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Typical American Family of the past

• Close to each other
• Had deep roots in their community
• Available as sources of support and guidance for each other
• Lived with relatives and took care of the ill and elderly
• Children grew up seeing death as a natural part of their existence
• Familiar with death in nature
• Observed how others coped with grief and mourning 
• Strong religious beliefs
• Rituals and ceremonies
• All this gave the bereaved person some meaning, security, predictability and control

Typical American Family of today

• Have fewer people we are close to who can help us cope with our grief
• Less familiar with death, since it happens chiefly to the ill and elderly, whom we tend to put in hospitals and nursing homes
• Less familiar with death in nature because we live in cities
• A decline in religious beliefs
• We've moved away from funerals and other rituals
• More mobile society and tend not to live with our extended family
• The average family moves every few years, we are not close to our communities