HELENA — Even in a season filled with emotion, families coping with loss can find moments of hope. Whether through new traditions or quiet reflection, they’re carrying their loved ones with them into the holidays.

“Well, the holidays are different for everyone, just like grief is different for everyone,” Grant Fairbrother, the volunteer and bereavement coordinator for St. Peter’s Health Hospice, said.

For Dr. Ezekiel Sharples, in palliative care, he starts the journey of grief with friends and family far before the end, sometimes beginning with a diagnosis of serious illness.

Sharples said, “There is a lot of grief that happens far before someone has died, both in the patient and also in their loved ones.”

For Fairbrother, he is there at the end and for over a year after helping famili

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